Core PHP Programming

Rating:
Summary: Under-welming and a tree killer
Review: The Core XXX series is printed by Prentice-Hall and the whole series suffers from bloat. A 13 page (!) table of contents and just a few pages less than Bruce Eckel's masterful Thinking in Java 1100+ pages. A huge tome with no mention of the PHP command line. The only graphic is on the cover. Great though for the visually impaired with huge type. The writing style is not friendly, the presentation is not a tutorial in any sense. There may be lots of things in this book, but much more refernce book style than a learn from book. When a scripting language takes on the characteristics of full-blown languages like C++ and Java, I think something is wrong. If you need to see some real-life coding examples that you can learn from, just Google 'php examples'. These are real meat-and-potatos code that will satisfy your real need which is to make PHP do things. While the programming talents of the authors is un-questionable, the writing talents displayed here are minimal. Overweight, overpriced and totally under-whelming.

Rating:
Summary: big, friendly and not useful
Review: [Reviewing 2nd edition.] This is definitely not a CORE quality book (especially compared to the outstanding CORE Java series).
Section 1, 100 pages of introductory material, tell you what RAM is (sort of), but doesn't tell you what happens when a cookie and a POST variable have the same name.
Section 2, 450 pages of this book, is a function reference, but the online php manual is free, easier to read and has more examples.
Section 3 has some exploratory examples -- I think there are better examples in the online manual and elsewhere on the net.
The book is confused about its audience. Beginning programmers should NOT start with php (or any scripting language) unless they are forced to put up a php web site overnight -- in which case they need a "cookbook", which this is definitely not. Experienced programmers will be terminally frustrated with the book's disorganization, poor layout and lack of crucial information.
Summary: It's not a cookbook, not a usable reference book and has no best practices advice.