The Coding Pad

The other day I was browsing Amazon.com trying to find a good PHP/MySQL book for my easily distracted mind to focus on. I have been making starts and stops in my PHP journey for some time now mostly because I was busy with school, but also because I couldn’t seem to find a good resource to help me get started and moving fast. The book that I had contemplated using before when I started working on improving my PHP skills fell short because it covered outdated versions of PHP and MySQL so I was constantly running into all kinds of errors.

Well, I think I finally solved my problem! I think I finally found the book that I’ve been looking for:

This book is great for several reasons. One, it’s laid out in a very easy to follow manner. It starts you off with just PHP, and has you building a nice dynamic website just with HTML/CSS and PHP by the second chapter. You get all the code so you can type it all out, but you can also download it from the accompanying website. I prefer to type it out because then I learn better. After you’ve got the basics of PHP under your belt, Larry moves you into MySQL and databases, and while I haven’t got there yet, I can tell by browsing through that he has done a thorough job covering as many details as he can in a book of that size. At the end, everything comes together, and you build several applications to test your knowledge and to whet your appetite for more.

Being the geek I am, I never buy a book or a gadget without reading as many reviews as I can find, and PHP and MySQL for Dynamic Web Sites: Visual QuickPro Guide (2nd Edition) (Visual QuickPro Guide) has excellent reviews at Amazon.com, and I definitely highly recommend it.

By the way, the second edition covers PHP 5 and MySQL 4.1, so you’re pretty up to date, and Appendix A guides you through the installation process. I’m excited to start working through this book!!

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