Core PHP Programming
by Leon Atkinson
It's a rather old book, and I'm not sure if any revisions were made, but frankly I don't care. If you can make it past the first 30 pages and take something away from it, more power to you. Only my high school programming teacher could appreciate this monstrosity (I'm surprised he didn't write it). Even if it is an advanced book, I don't think it's good practice to assume the user knows ANYTHING. I'm not sure why anyone would buy a programming book just so they could ponder the inner workings and philosophy of PHP (especially if your goal is to LEARN PHP). The book is 568 pages long, including the appendixes and index. I don't know about you, but a big book is intimidating enough, let alone 500 pages of technical jargon.Mr. Author, sir, do this instead: 1) Explain concepts in a clear and concise manner that anyone can understand. 2) Provide practical examples that demonstrate how the user can manipulate the code to obtain the results they are looking for. Don't just assume your audience knows what operators and arrays are, and how to use them. What's the point in dedicating entire chapters to these concepts when you have no intention of explaining them in simple terms? 3) Don't ramble on for pages; it's just unnecessary and cruel. 4) While you're at it, add some humor to the book. It's just plain dry.
Okay, I'm sick of this load of crap. Let's move on...
PHP MySQL Website Programming: Problem - Design - Solution
by Chris Lea, Mike Buzzard, Jessey White-Cinis, and Dilip Thomas
More like Problems - Confusion - Frustration. Here's a word of advice: Just avoid books with more than two authors, period. Here's the book in a nutshell: The authors set out to explain what they're going to do, begin doing what they said they were going to do by further exploring and muddling the original idea by demonstrating said ideas in utterly useless code fragments. Did that make any sense? Well, that's about as much sense as this book makes. If you don't believe me, there are many reviews on the web that can attest. And what's with all the limitations anyway? I don't care what the book is NOT designed for; I want to know what it IS designed for, and how it's going to help ME! What is this, a science project? An essay? NO! "Why don't we just go and make a book that's boring? It should have lots of text, the same crummy picture at the head of every chapter, and while we're at it, let's forego technical support and useful information. Additionally, why don't we obscure and withhold anything that could be helpful to the user and make it long-winded and tedious so the user learns nothing and feels stupid?" WHAT WERE THEY THINKING!? Code fragments are useless to the beginner. Yes, I'm well aware that this is not a beginner book. But answer me; why is everybody on the forum asking if anyone made it to the end of the book? I wouldn't buy this book even if they revised it. I want my $50.00 US back.So, here's my point: If you're going to get into PHP, there are certain books you should avoid (and I'm sure there are many others). I didn't know that such abominations even existed, but fortunately I didn't waste too much money on this hogwash. I strongly believe that programming should be fun and not overly complicated. I hate cryptic books that seem as though they could be useful (frustrating), but only make matters worse and confuse the issues.
Next time we'll take a look at books and other resources that are actually good. This article was written by David Andrew Wiebe, web designer, graphic designer, guitarist, bassist, keyboardist, songwriter, guitar instructor, and music expert. Interested in winning a free CD? Click here for more info! Questions? Comments? Suggestions? Recommendations? Email me.
Published on May 10, 2007