PHP Textbook w/ applications and "homework problems"

A

alexfort93

[H]ard|Gawd
Joined
Feb 21, 2008
Messages
1,856
Hey all,

I'm looking to pick up some PHP over this summer to help with my internship that I landed. I know some Visual Basic and Scheme, but am quick to pick up anything programming. Now, I did read the two book recommendations for PHP, but my biggest thing to help me learn is implementing the code that I read, rather than just reading it and going through the book. I almost want to make this a class for myself, with certain sections and homework problems that implement each section and previous ones.

Does anyone have any recommendations for such a book? Or a solid learn-PHP book in general? Thanks! I appreciate it.
 
I first used books by Larry Ullman to learn PHP. He has a very good visual presentation of the code and the result. The only real problem I have with them in this day in age is his example projects were done with procedural programming and I have since moved to OOP. Of course, my book is 4 years old so his later editions may have changed that.
 
That heads first book looks a little weird to me. Why on earth is it mentioning PHP6? which does not exist by the way. Also it claims to not support specific PHP functionality, which is a bad thing given that no one should use PHP versions prior to 5.3 as they are deprecated. If you are going to be learning PHP now, Object Oriented PHP is the only way to go. Unfortunately I can not recommend any books as I learned everything from the php.net documentation and by having previous programming experience. I would however pick up a book on C++ or Java, or just a general Object Oriented Programming (OOP) as it will help you learn programming a little more thoroughly that will also apply to PHP directly. PHP uses C syntax, same as Java, and borrows many functions from it, so it doesn't hurt to become familiarized with them.
 
JosiahBradley said:
That heads first book looks a little weird to me. Why on earth is it mentioning PHP6? which does not exist by the way. Also it claims to not support specific PHP functionality, which is a bad thing given that no one should use PHP versions prior to 5.3 as they are deprecated. If you are going to be learning PHP now, Object Oriented PHP is the only way to go. Unfortunately I can not recommend any books as I learned everything from the php.net documentation and by having previous programming experience. I would however pick up a book on C++ or Java, or just a general Object Oriented Programming (OOP) as it will help you learn programming a little more thoroughly that will also apply to PHP directly. PHP uses C syntax, same as Java, and borrows many functions from it, so it doesn't hurt to become familiarized with them.
Click to expand...

I read the book over three years ago when I was first dabbling with back end development after I graduated(.net and C++ the whole time in college). I can't think of a single instance where it mentions php 6... I'm sure it was some marketing turd that wrote it on that page.

The OP wanted a book with homework type situations... which this book has. It also focuses on MySQL which probably 90% of php devs use.

It does not teach OOP practices... it does however give a good idea of how web based programming works. Which it sounds like to op needs coming from VB. Also if it is an internship I doubt he will be writing a lot of object oriented code... I know I make our interns work on legacy code more than anything and most is not OOP.
 
I got my hands on a pdf of the Head First PHP book... looks good! Easy to follow and I can work along through examples. Thanks! I appreciate it!
 
alexfort93 said:
I got my hands on a pdf of the Head First PHP book... looks good! Easy to follow and I can work along through examples. Thanks! I appreciate it!
Click to expand...

No problem man... it really did help me starting out. It's actually kind of funny to read through which kept me interested.

One of the best professors I had in college(actually head of the department) recommended Head's First books to all of us on the last day of our capstone class before graduating. Dude was my kind of professor... down to earth, no bull shit, lots of real world experience, and a phd/masters/bachelors to go along with it all.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top