Programming in PHP, by Rasmus Lerdorf, Kevin Tatroe & Peter MacIntyre

Posted June 13th, 2006 by Taran

This book appealed to me because it might fill in some gaps in my knowledge. My PHP knowledge before reading this book had come from the Internet and Free Software/Open Source projects, such as Drupal.

Books on programming languages are fairly straightforward. There's the history, the basics of the language and syntax, and the most interesting parts - how to 'do stuff' with the language. How all of this is put together matters a lot, especially with the people new to the programming language. It means the difference between understanding and not understanding, and it also means the difference between a reference book and a narrative book. This book is a bit of both because of the way it was put together. To make matters more interesting, the person who buys such a book probably doesn't know what to expect from the book. Thus, I approached this book as someone who can't even spell PHP, and worked from there.

The book gains a lot from the authors. Rasmus Lerdorf wrote the first version of PHP, and with Kevin Tatroe is the coauthor of the first edition of this book. Peter MacIntyre has contributed to many books, and is currently the contributing editor for php|architect (a site worth visiting when you're done with the book).

In 521 pages, the book covers a lot of ground and as someone who did read it from end to end, I found it readable and useful. That's a neat trick when it comes to a language such as PHP, which can be used in so many ways. The highlights of the book are:

An introduction to PHP, which includes it's history and more importantly, it gives a walkthrough of PHP.
PHP Language Basics.
Calling and Defining various types of functions.
String handling - strings being alphanumeric text, where the basics of user input are for many applications.
Arrays
Objects - always a tricky section for new programmers who don't have a background in Object-oriented programming.
Web Techniques, including a http primer, dealing with variables, server information, processing forms and setting response headers as well as maintaining a state.
Using PHP to access a database, including some advanced database techniques and a complete sample application.
Graphics in it's many forms.
Dealing with PDF extensions and creating PDF files with the extensions.
XML - a nice primer into generating and parsing XML, with realistic information on the strengths and weaknesses of some tools.
Security - a very big issue on the web, from filtering input and 'escaping' output to cross-site scripting, session fixation, file uploads and access, shell commands, as well as the PHP code itself.
Application techniques like code libraries, the templating systems, output and error handling, as well as the ever-important performance tuning.
Extending PHP - everything you wanted to know about extending PHP but you didn't know to ask.
PHP on Microsoft Windows.

In all, this book covers a lot of ground - and while it is readable end to end, it will probably see the most use in readers going to the various sections that they are interested in. This works with most sections, though a new programmer should probably at least skim the book first. The Appendices contain the function reference for PHP as well as the extension review.

I've found the book useful as a reference text that I can walk away from the monitor with. I think that a lot of people who want to learn PHP and have some programming/scripting experience behind them may find this book an asset. In an age where PHP usage seems to always be on the increase, it's probably a good idea to have such a well-rounded reference around. This book is as good as the programmer allows it to be; reading it alone will give a good general idea - but like all things in programming, the proof is in the code.

Overall - a 8 out of 10. I recommend this book to people who want to learn PHP, and intermediate folk such as myself who haven't written a language yet. Programming PHP is a good buy for beginners and intermediate PHP programmers.