Re: the best 1 book for php

On Thu, Apr 07, 2011 at 02:54:45PM -0500, Donovan Brooke wrote: > Kirk Bailey wrote: > >If I only had 1 book on php, what would it be? > > > I have to disagree with the php.net 'docs' being the best "book". > > Though most of us will have a php.net tab open in your browser every > time we write code, it's not the same learning that comes with a > good book IMO. Reading a book can give a more robust understanding > to a language, perhaps especially when starting out. You get to > listen in on the author's perceptions of tools, theories of > practice, etc.. which can help with concepts, reasoning, and > understanding etc.. > > Perhaps you start to get a similar type of learning with a good talk > list combined with php.net however... perhaps with a bit of spam. > ;-) > > Anyway, someone mentioned Larry Ullman's books and I'd have to > second that suggestion. I agree regarding php.net. php.net is a great resource for function references. It is less of a great resource for basic language elements and such, mainly because of the way it's indexed. It's much harder to find a full explanation of something like "heredocs" on the site than an explanation of, say the "date()" function. However, if you're trying to learn the language, a book is a better companion than php.net. I'd recommend the O'Reilly book "Programming PHP" by Lerdorf, Tatroe & MacIntyre. Before I discovered php.net, it was my bible (not the one Tedd referred to). Paul -- Paul M. Foster http://noferblatz.com http://quillandmouse.com