Re: PHP textbook suggestions?

Chris Lott wrote: > Looking for suggestions for a PHP textbook for an "Intro to Web > Programming" class that will be using PHP5 and MySQL. This is a > first-semester course, so no programming experience required. > > It would be nice to have a text that adhered to (what I see as) good every that shines is not gold - or to put it another way: horseshit to your good practice. > practice using quotation marks... i.e. > > print 'The cost is ' . $cost; > NOT > print "The cost is $cost"; I almost certain that the above to equate to the exact same OPCODEs when the php is compiled ... and you will never be able to benchmark a valid difference between them either way. > AND CERTAINLY NOT > print ("The cost is $cost"); the brackets are superfluous - but not incorrect. newcomers should be taught to understand what the brackets are actually doing (effecting operator precedence) > > echo substr('abcdef', 1); > NOT > echo substr("abcdef", 1); rather nitpicking - again you'll never be able to measure the difference in a meaningful way, nonetheless my preference goes for single quotes unless the string literal I have contains a single quote. explain to your noobs the difference between the quotes and tell them what your preferences are and why - in the real world they'll come across all the variations that you/they/me/us/he dislikes so they might as well be given the facts up front, no? jmho. > > > I will be teaching, so a book that a student can-- before the class-- > work through and understand is good-- doesn't have to be a traditional > textbook! But it shouldn't be a reference manual either. avoid anything where the title ends in 'for Dummies' ;-) > > c > -- > Chris Lott >