PHP Fast & Easy Web Development, Second Edition

Create dynamic Web pages quickly with PHP Fast & Easy Web Development! PHP is an open-source, HTML-embedded, server-side scripting language with flexible and simple requirements, yet powerful output. You don't have to be familiar with programming to learn from this book. As part of the Fast & Easy Web Development series, it applies the highly successful combination of easy-to-understand instructions and real screen shots for a truly unique learning experience. Plus, the companion Web site allows you to download sample code from the book.

User review
Fast & Easy
Titled appropriately, I found this book to be Fast & Easy. I was able to quickly learn concepts in PHP which I had been struggling to understand. The information is well-laid out and presented in a easily-understood format.

User review
Hard to read.
I have to admit that I learned PHP primarily by reading this book, but I wouldn't recommend it for others. Beside the errors (which would confuse the heck out of non-programmers), I find the book repetitive and hard to read for long amounts of time. In fact, I believe there are two tables both defining the same escape characters, but now that I search for them, the index doesn't point to any tables at all. The book definitely has TOO MANY FRICKIN SCREENSHOTS. Sure, screenshots are alright for some things, but when it's one or two lines of formatted HTML, you might as well include it inline instead of taking up 1/3 of the page. Another thing I don't like about the book is that no matter what chapter you read, it still reads as though you've never programmed PHP before. Example (page 189):

10. Close the for loop:

}


I ask, is this really necessary? One-third of the book could be easily condensed, and I'm not even eggagerating. This nonsense runs throughout the book. The examples are very useful, but for me, it was very hard to read cover to cover. Personally, I think you should find something else.

User review
Great on PHP, short on SQL
This book sits right here on my shelf next to my PC along with my Photoshop, UNIX, and C++ books. It's a great resource for things PHP related.

The step-by-stel method works well with this book and it explains things in clear, plain english. This is a PHP book for someone who loves HTML, but has never ventured into PHP before. It will be of limited use for someone who uses PHP all the time, save for the refrence section, which is like a shortened and easily explained version of www.php.net

The biggest problem I had with this was that it tries to show you PHP/SQL applications without really teaching you mySQL. So you'll get the jist of the database workings (They even throw in a section on normalization!), but no real sense of the database itself.

If you're going to buy this book, buy an easy SQL book and go through that first so you understand how to make databases, tables, etc. It'll make this one a lot easier once you hit the DB part of it.

Just come prepared, and this book will be worth it.

User review
Page 8
I couldn't get past page 8 in this book. The mysqld-opt command to use to start the mysql server is not what www.mysql.com recommends for a windows machine. The book looks like it's easy to read. But I couldnt get out of the starting block with the mysql effort in the first chapter. It was easier to buy a mysql book and do it the correct way. Some URL's are needed in the install area that take one to some type of Mysql installation help. There are some at the back of the book, but I only saw those as I was dropping the book in the trash.

It's probably not the books fault, but mysql installations on a windows machine,,. well you have to be lucky. There is no forum easily accessbile at mysql.com and google points mostly to linux resources,,.

User review
Great book for beginners with programming background
This is one of the best `introduction to` books I've used in a long time. Essentially, you're retyping simple, but potentially useful, well-documented examples -- much friendlier than the `this is left to the reader as an exercise` approach of textbooks I've read. This book **does** assume you know some programming. You should know basic concepts such as variables, arrays, loops, etc. before purchasing this book. Of course, had the author discussed these concepts, this book would be many pages longer and cost 25% more. The examples in the book are available in the publisher's website, although when I downloaded them, the example code wasn't organized well to match the book. The book, likewise, has a few, but critical typos. Also, not that **any** programming book I've read helps you debug code, but if you mistype something and have to debug your code, you're totally left on your own (although I haven't emailed the author like another reviewer did). A very good introduction to PHP!