PHP bookz for noobs

NwLifestyleMntr

Can anybody recommend a good PHP book for a newbie? I want to get into PHP programming, but can't seem to find a good book for the newbie.

Can anyone help me out? Any help would be greatly appreciated.

(I did see "PHP 5 Unleashed" by Sams, and that seems like a good book ... and looks quite intensive at 825+ pages.)

NwLifestyleMntr

LiLaaron

How about... PHP for Dummies ?

😃

bpat1434

Matt Zandstra.....

He has a good PHP 5 OOP book out....

PHP 5 Unleashed is also a good book for new people 🙂

Hope that helps.

Jason_Batten

PHP for the world wide web, second edition by Larry Ullman, helped me and I had no programming experience before hand - well except for a tutorial.

Don't worry yourself with OOP cr*p yet if you are new to programming.

Check the top of the echo forums for the php books sticky!!!

pohopo

I like all Wrox books

Weedpacket

There are also a lot of suggestions in the "PHP Books" thread in this forum. It's stuck near the top, so you can't miss it.

Jason_Batten

pohopo wrote:
I like all Wrox books

Um... why?

There are so many other publishers which put a lot more effort into producing quality books.

pohopo

Jason Batten wrote:
Um... why?

There are so many other publishers which put a lot more effort into producing quality books.

Because I like their layout and they are easy to read while still containing a wealth of information. I have a ton of books, but it is the wrox ones I keep opening up the most for reference. My favorite PHP one has to be PHP5 Professional by Wrox. Maybe it is because I am now just used to their structure, so when I grab a new one it is easy for me to jump into and find the info i need.

bubblenut

I went for a long time sticking mainly to O'Reilly. I bought books by other publishers but only when I couldn't find exactly what I was looking for with an O'Reilly book (which wasn't very often). The book which finally moved me off this was The Pragmatic Programmer (an awesome book which every programmer should read) which is published by Adisson Wesley. After that I started buying books from the Pragmatic Bookshelf (the version control and unit testing ones are brilliant), and then just started buying books which were getting a lot of attention in the PHP community (GOF, PoEAA, Matt Zandra's, the PHP|Arch. one etc.). What I think I've found is that different publishers seem to cater to certain areas of the market.
[WARNING]Broad generalizations and personal opinion comming up
Wrox: Entry level web books. Even their professional books tend to be very accessable.
O'Reilly: Reference material. I can't think of an O'Reilly book I've read cover to cover and I can't think of one which hasn't been usefull as a reference.
Addison Wesley: High level (in the programming sense of being more abstract rather than meaning more academic). Tend to be well laid out for reference, but a different kind to that of O'Reilly.
Pragmatic Bookshelf: Similar to Addison Wesley in a way but more focused around best practices rather than concrete development models (that one's probably going to get some comments 😉
Prentice Hall: Acedemic support. It's what they are, you can't really argue with that one.
APres: I've only got the one book by these guys I think (not sure, half my books are at the office). Matt Zandstra's OPP. Just had a look through what they're offering though and wow, looks like I might be doing another little spending spree soon.

Anyway, this is only touching on a few publishers. Those which I are or have been most relevent to me. Also, this is just my opinion and even in that they are broad generalizations. I have exceptions to these rules sat in front of me now. Programming Ruby (Addison Wesley) which would sit just as comfortably in an O'Reilly cover or Head First Design Patterns (O'Reilly) which, with the rest of the Head First series could carve their own publishing company in much the same way the Pragmatic Bookshelf did off the back of The Pragmatic Programmer.