Comments on: Book Review: Wicked Cool PHP

By: Lou

Lou — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 14:59:25 +0000

I’m trying to go beyond WordPress and develop some real application driven websites, so I’ve been studying PHP for the last few months. It’s tough, because I’m not a programmer, but I am getting better. I picked up this book and at first I was impressed, but when trying to the various tutorials in the back, my opinion of the book went down a notch. However, I do plan to try and implement the simple blog and greeting card tutorials. The blog tutorial looked good, but it uses something called SMARTY which I’m not using in the site I’m building, so that through me for a loop. This book does have some nice info, but I’m still favoring Larry Ullman’s works (PHP, PHP 6 and MySQL 5, Advanced PHP) at this time.

By: Richard

Richard — Wed, 20 May 2009 20:53:35 +0000

This is the best tech book I’ve ever “read” and I have read many. I wish all tech books were structured using the same technique and format. Are you thinking of writing a “Wicked Cool jQuery” book any time soon?

By: Tim

Tim — Fri, 27 Feb 2009 22:22:38 +0000

I’ve been looking for reviews on PHP books and I’m looking for a great starter book to teach me the fundamentals. Assuming I know nothing, which would be a pretty good assumption, any recommendations?

Very informative website, I check the RSS feed daily.

By: david

david — Tue, 10 Jun 2008 12:55:22 +0000

@Will: I would recommend “PHP 5 in Practice (Developer’s Library) ” by Digg’s Eli White. I have it and it’s great. Check it out at your local book store before you buy it to make sure.

By: Will

Will — Tue, 10 Jun 2008 04:58:02 +0000

Hmm, I wonder if you even check on comments on old posts, or if you just get notified of any comments whether they’re on old posts or new posts.

So, I had this bookmarked for a long time, and after reading it once more I’ve decided it might be a bit too novice for me. I’m sure I’d learn a new thing here and there, but I’m not sure it would be enough to warrant buying the book over.

I actually learned PHP from an eBook of PHP and MySQL for Dummies, and I pretty much taught myself everything else I know just from playing around browsing the PHP documentation, etc.

Long winded, but any recommendations for a book that’s maybe a level or two up from this?

By: PHP Scripts

PHP Scripts — Wed, 19 Mar 2008 03:32:38 +0000

@Demond: While it’s true that you can learn everything you need to know about PHP online, its not necessarily the best way.

The net is full of a lot of rubbish, and finding the good stuff amongst all the badly written stuff can be quite time consuming.

A well written book can put all that in one place, and save you a lot of time searching.

Personally I value my time more than my money, so I’ll always buy useful books like this to shortcut learning.

By: david

david — Tue, 18 Mar 2008 15:04:21 +0000

@Demond: I half agree with you. I taught myself PHP in my spare time so I agree with that point. I disagree that it’s a waste of money though — there are numerous tips in the book (and probably all PHP books) that I wish I knew right away!

By: Demond

Demond — Tue, 18 Mar 2008 14:52:15 +0000

PHP is so simple that you don’t really need to purchase any books for it. There are so many tutorials on the net with working examples with various levels of expertise on almost any topic that one wishes to program in when the scripting language is PHP…so I don’t see the point of wasting any money…regardless of how good the book is

By: Will

Will — Tue, 18 Mar 2008 13:10:49 +0000

$20 on Amazon – not bad. I’ll note this for later when I’ll have some more free time.