Go to your local library and pick one or two. It hardly matters which one you choose. You'd be hard pressed to find a really bad one, and the web is full of tutorials that can fill in the blanks for you. Dive in!
penders
11:52 pm on Sep 13, 2011 (gmt 0)
Go to your local library and pick one...
Make sure it's PHP 5, and not PHP 4 !
Matthew1980
7:56 pm on Sep 14, 2011 (gmt 0)
Hi there joliett89,
>>Can you recommend some good PHP books?
Anything by welling & Thopmson, or just type in php books into Amazon.(com||uk) but yes, as penders points out, make sure that you are reading/learning from the relevant book that is most pertinent to your server set up.
Also, depending on what type of projects you are wanting to learn depends tangentially where you need to go. Some people will recommend that you dive straight into class development (if you're programming from scratch this isn't a recommended step), but the best way to learn is by doing something small & relatively complex to get you going, something like a blog or gallery (I did this), then progress from there..
Of course, this is totally your choice - but above all, enjoy it!
Have fun, and be sure to post if there are things that you don't understand, there are plenty of experts on here to guide you around the ever expanding world of php website development.
Cheers, MRb
joliett89
9:02 am on Sep 15, 2011 (gmt 0)
I want to learn PHP in general (I am already at beginner / intermediate level) but the first thing I would like to do is to work on some programs that use Smarty (tube application, tgp script). I want to get to know the code 100% before I start working on it etc... (html, css, smarty, javascript are the major ones). I know there is one book about Smarty, so I am probably gonna get this one, but I wanna learn PHP anyway.
joliett89
9:02 am on Sep 15, 2011 (gmt 0)
I posted twice by mistake, so I am gonna add some recommended books from other places:
- PHP objects, patterns and practice
- Zend PHP 5 Certification - PHP in Action - PHP and MySQL Web Development - PHP Cookbook - SQL for MySQL Developers
People mention other titles too, but thats what I got so far. There is a lot of books, and most of them are OK, but some are a little better than others etc...
Thank you.
Matthew1980
2:41 pm on Sep 15, 2011 (gmt 0)
>>- Zend PHP 5 Certification
If you've the time - do that! Zend is a great place to go, and very lucrative if ya get there.
But, you have to find the book thats right for you, in structure, pace and content. Otherwise there is nothing being gained.
Learning php is done through trial and error, and lots of coffee, just remember that structure is key.
Cheers, MRb
phpwillie
5:48 am on Sep 16, 2011 (gmt 0)
I recommend 'PHP Cookbook' and 'PHP in a nutshell'.
topr8
6:38 am on Sep 16, 2011 (gmt 0)
the most important php book i've read is:
Essential PHP security ... it's a very small o'reilly one, i'd read it before any bad habits slip into your work.
