Re: PHP textbook suggestions?

On Wed, April 11, 2007 2:09 pm, Chris Lott wrote: > On 4/10/07, Richard Lynch <ceo@l-i-e.com> wrote: >> > print 'The cost is ' . $cost; >> > NOT >> > print "The cost is $cost"; >> > AND CERTAINLY NOT >> > print ("The cost is $cost"); >> >> echo "The cost is ", $cost; >> >> If you're going to be this picky, you'd better write your own >> textbook... >> >> :-) >> >> Perhaps instead of a textbook, just use >> http://php.net/manual > > The manual is not nearly enough reference for a beginning students. > You illustrate the problem with quotes in your example above-- why > double quotes with no variable being interpolated? Surely the lecture is going to cover *something* :-) That said, I suppose a good textbook *and* assigned readings in parallel of specific sectionns of the online PHP Manual would be your best bet. > The . is the documented string operator for concatenation... that's > one of the reasons I dislike the unneeded parentheses with the print > function-- then I have to explain-- before I want to-- arguments to > functions, which is necessary to explain the comma. Yes. One needs to cover each of the following in the first couple classes: ' versus " function versus language construct basic operators and syntax (. versus , included here) One *might* delay all that until the second class, just to get a sample web page "up" as a first exercise, more or less blindly typing whatever they are told to type. But if that materiel isn't covered by lesson 2 or 3 at the latest, they'll never understand the billion PHP scripts they should be using as a learning resource... -- Some people have a "gift" link here. Know what I want? I want you to buy a CD from some indie artist. http://cdbaby.com/browse/from/lynch Yeah, I get a buck. So?