Product Reviews

PHP is a scripting language for web pages. It is easy to use, powerful and free, and this accounts for the increasing number of web pages that you encounter that end in .php. It's a viable alternative to both Java and ASP .NET. It's also a server side script so it can integrate with databases on the server.

Linda

This book covers the basics and shows you how to master form validation, cookies, user authentication and so on. There is even a chapter on the MySQL open-source database. The book has two parts: language facilities, arrays, classes and control constructs, and applications of the language. We thought essential details of installing PHP were omitted, but it's covered in an appendix. This is the weakest point as far as Windows users are concerned; open-source software can be confusing due to the lack of slick installation procedures.

Still, if you're looking for a pocket guide to PHP, this is a fine choice and it's so up to date it even covers PHP 5.0.