PHP: The Good Parts

by Peter B. MacIntyre

Get past all the hype about PHP and dig into the real power of this language. This book explores the most useful features of PHP and how they can speed up the web development process, and explains why the most commonly used PHP elements are often misused or misapplied. You'll learn which parts add strength to object-oriented programming, and how to use certain features to integrate your application with databases. Written by a longtime member of the PHP community, PHP: The Good Parts is ideal for new PHP programmers, as well as web developers switching from other languages.Become familiar with PHP's basic syntax, variables, and datatypes Learn how to integrate the language with web pages Understand how to use strings, arrays, and PHP's built-in functions Discover the advantages of using PHP as an object-oriented language Explore how PHP interacts with databases, such as SQLite and MySQL Learn input- and output-handling best practices to prevent security breaches

Genres: Programming, Technology

174 pages, Paperback

First published April 7, 2010

Reviews

[James Kubecki · Rating 1 out of 5]

I started reading the book because I'm working in PHP a little but am "self-taught" on it. I wanted something like Crockford's similarly titled JavaScript: The Good Parts, to cover both the basics of PHP that I may not have encountered in my self-taught tinkering, as well as the "cool tricks" that seasoned developers have learned.
I was disappointed to find that this book contained neither. Even the basics covered are
extremely basic at BEST. I got to the section on "getters and setters," which, instead of covering the get and set magic methods that let you define actual OOP style getters and setters, the author describes adding methods that just happen to be called setx and getx and have no link to a property x other than name. Bizarre.
From there I skipped back to the chapter at the end titled "advanced goodness," only to find even more very basic stuff covered under the guise of "advanced" - i.e. regex, SimpleXML, and *gasp* IDEs and popular PHP sites.
I'll be hitting PHP Hacks, and the PHP Cookbook next, both ALSO from O'Reilly. Hopefully one or both of them will reflect the quality that I NORMALLY associate with the publisher...

[Elene Latsoshvili · Rating 1 out of 5]

The book has absolutely nothing in common with 'JavaScript the Good Parts' by Douglas Crockford, except for the name. Sometimes it tries to be a reference book and gets into details with some functions, sometimes it stuffs large concepts in one page - not unexpected in case of 170 pages. The book is too scattered for beginners and has nothing new for experienced ones. Some parts were exceptionally irritating like 'I am not a big fan of cookies. I hardly use them, but they do have their place... The alternative to cookies is the session entity'.

Terrible code examples for OOP. The 'Advanced goodness' chapter covers only regex, SimpleXML, IDEs and popular php sites (?!), whereas the bad parts contain only 'goto' statement, inconsistent function signatures and loose typing.

I am sorry that I write a negative review, but he should have chosen a different title. I do not recommend this book to anyone.

[A. · Rating 2 out of 5]

I liked the part that the book is a pretty light read but to be honest, the title is misleading. There are many things about PHP that weren't discussed in this book. I'd still recommend this book to someone who wants to get a feel of how things work in PHP.

[Enrique Barbeito · Rating 1 out of 5]

In my opinion the title of this book doesn't correspond to its content. All topics are treated without any deep (for example the chapter about "objects" it's simply a joke, sorry). May be I misunderstood the purpose of this book but, in general, I didn't like it.

[Maxim Chetruşca · Rating 2 out of 5]

A very quick intro to PHP. The good thing is that it is short. Some general concepts are misleading or even erroneous (OOP section, for example). After reading this book, I have a general idea about PHP.

[Alan]

http://www.drdobbs.com/blog/archives/...

[Todd Thelin · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was an alright book, but there seemed to be a lot of the nitty gritty missing. I know that there are better books for PHP amateurs. My thoughts are my own.

[Nikolay · Rating 2 out of 5]

Вътре нямаше нищо. Не е добра нито за начинаещи (много откъслечни познания), нито за напреднали (нищо ново). Хора посредата може и да научат нещо дребно.

[N · Rating 1 out of 5]

Hands down the worst book about PHP I've ever read.

[zygimantus · Rating 1 out of 5]

Poorly written book, examples are hard to read.