Review: Head First PHP & MySQL

Posted by tripwire45 on Apr 6, 2009 8:23 PM EDT
A Million Chimpanzees; By James Pyles
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The good news is all you need to use this book is some prior experience building static web pages using HTML/XHTML...sort of. That's what the Who is this book for? section says. However, the Who should probably back away from this book part says that anyone who isn't familiar with basic programming concepts like variables and loops should steer clear. On the other hand, the same section declares that those basic concepts can be learned from this book. OK, just a tad confused here. Actually, the one piece that would bind all this together would be the mention of JavaScript (and there's a Head First book for that, too). Not sure why JavaScript wasn't mentioned, but it would have been a good bridge linking the rank web design beginner to this book, since JavaScript also makes static HTML pages dynamic. Also, folks familiar with JavaScript would certainly be familiar with basic programming concepts. Be that as it may, let's move on.

This book contains certain predictable bits that you'd expect in any Head First book. It's loaded with diagrams, graphics, and "retro" photos from what looks like old 1950s sitcoms. It's written for someone who forgot to take his or her Ritalin today and is in desperate need of said medication. The book teaches technology using scenarios that at least the book series and O'Reilly considers interesting if not important to the late high school and early college reader. Of course, there's a bit more to learning and using PHP and MySQL then learning to write code in a text editor. Will this book successfully teach the beginning web designer how to use server-side scripting and relational databases?

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