Web Database Applications with PHP & MySQL, 2nd Edition

PHP Cookbook

Learning PHP 5

Cascading Style Sheets: The Definitive Guide, 2nd Edition

JavaScript: The Definitive Guide

Html General

Programming PHP

Format: Paperback
Author: Kevin Tatroe
ReleaseDate: 01 April, 2006
Publisher: O'Reilly Media
Rating:

Better - What you would expect from a 2nd edition
I've also spent some time reading the reviews of the 1st edition and you are right on the money, Nathan Torkington. Spent an hour examining this 2nd edition. Many of the reviews show that the reviwer did not take much time or care going thru the book. When you've got the kind of talent and writing experience shared by the two authors, you have got to be one doozy of a PHP person to find the kind of faults some reviewers report. O'Reiily does a great job of maintaining an ERRATA page for each of their books. You never made a typo, guys ? In general this is a nice cleanup of the book. Very good for starters & intermediates.
And thank you to David Wall, who says it all: "The authors use a Talmudic (JBC adds:For readers not familiar with the TALMUD, check out Wikipedia)style to explore PHP's capabilities and explain them to their readers, meaning that they like to present code and commentary in close formation, with each enhancing the other. Typically, they'll present a capability generically and show the relevant code. Then they'll dig into variations on the theme, calling attention to required code alterations as they go. This is a book about PHP itself, so practically no attention is paid to PHP Builder or other development tools. Regardless, this book will help you solve programming challenges with PHP, and enable you to write efficient, attractive code. " .

nice book
Programming PHP is a great book for PHP speakers and the excellent php function reference in appendix A is really adequate value for the book. Like many people I know, I have to use multiple programming languages, and php happens to be one of them.

Take heart, you can do without the book, if you don't already own a copy, but owning a copy is also a great way to support the community, so go get on. .

Lack of Examples
It describes a function in English words but rarely gives an example of how to invoke it. This book lacks examples. If you're trying to do File I/O this book is NOT for you.