Reviews for Learning PHP & MySQL: Step-by-Step Guide to Creating Database-Driven Web Sites

1. Wrecked by coding errors

   Rated 2 out of 5 stars, July 12th, 2008

   This is an adequate, though uninspired, look through the basics of using PHP and MySQL to build dynamic web sites. Because it is trying to cover two major topics from a starter level it is unable to treat either in the depth needed for the reader to become fluent in either the use of SQL databases, or PHP.
   
   However, the book also suffers from a serious flaw which renders it unfit to be used by those wishing to learn the subjects involved. The sample PHP code is frequently incorrect, and this will cause endless confusion for newcomers. It is clear that insufficient attention has been paid to making sure the code is correct, which would seem to indicate that the authors haven't even tried to run the code they present.
   
   What the editors at O'Reilly were thinking of when they let this go through, I really don't know.
   
   Not recommended.
   
   
   

2. Full of mistakes, utterly unprofessional

   Rated 2 out of 5 stars, May 12th, 2008

   I'm on the verge of giving up with this book. I'm not a qualified programmer, so I want to be able to trust that the book I'm using is accurate. This book isn't.
   
   Some typos are stupid simple things that anyone with internet experience can probably fix - e.g. it says apache.or/... when it means apache.org/... They'll cause what you're doing to fail, but will only cost you about 5 minutes to fix and a few units of sanity as you curse O'Reily Media for being so shockingly unprofessional.
   
   Others are fatal (figurativly speaking!), or at least for someone like me of the level this book pretends to be aimed at (experience with HTML & CSS, no formal programming background). E.g. when it's guiding you through setting up PHP to run with Apache, it leads you by the hand as far as opening the .conf file you need to modify in notepad, takes you to the right section in the file, and then... "Restart Apache so it can read the new configuration". But I haven't changed the configuration! They seem to have literally forgotten to write what I actually need to do! Even worse, the things they did bother to explain (e.g. that I might want to use notepad.exe) I could have worked out for myself. There's a screenshot, which has different code to what's on my screen, but copying it so they match doesn't work...
   
   An experienced programmer who knows and understands php, mysql, apache etc would have no trouble working out what to do. But why would such a person need or want this book? What's the point of a teaching book when you need to already know everything in the book in order to spot when the book itself is wrong?
   
   As for the explanations, they're sometimes good and easy to follow, but again there are careless slips. This book is quite often guilty of taking you by the hand through the simple things to the point of being patronising and then dumping a whole pile of new, difficult material on you without any real explanation.
   
   E.g. it explains in withering detail the concept of multiplication coming before addition unless there are brackets (thank you, but I did actually go to school...) then the very next page it casually mentions that ~ means 'bitwise NOT' without any explanation of what the 'bitwise' part means. So they expect be to have failed pre-GCSE-level maths, but to know technical programming jargon...
   
   This is the second time I've been let down by an O'Reily book that claims to be accessible to and usable by non-programmers. Never again.
   
   (p.s. after having looked for the ommitted information, I think it's the 1st edition of the book I've been struggling with. However, it seems from other reviews and discussions that the 2nd edition has exactly the same problems, and I can't find the information I need anywhere, including on the O'Reilly website. Therefore what I say still stands, although the particular typos and omissions might be different, hence 2 stars instead of 1)

3. Good intro, but too many typos

   Rated 3 out of 5 stars, April 12th, 2008

   Good overall introduction to using php and mysql, that also introduces you to using tools like PEAR and the smarty template engine. I bought the book because a) I've been impressed with O'REilly books before and b) It included chapters on Security and on Sessions and Access Controls. I was also impressed that the Mysql parts included basic dba necessities such as backups, imports and use of indexes etc. However (and this is why I'm not giving the full 5 stars) there were a lot of silly typos in the code I typed in from the book. Once I looked at the Oreilly site (they correct some typos there) I was able to hunt down the rest. I suspect it would be a showstopper for someone who hasn't the relevant programming experience however. Since the book didn't come with code on disk I can only give 3 stars (or three and a half).

4. Learning PHP and MySQL

   Rated 5 out of 5 stars, October 12th, 2007

   PHP and MySQL are highly adaptive programs that can be used to create a variety of dynamic website potentials. Although fairly simple to use once you understand the basics, the learning curve on these programs is a little high at first. In order to use the capabilities, the user has to not only understand what the programs do and how they work together. However, probably the hardest part of the process is learning all the vocabulary associated with these systems.
   
   Learning PHP & MySQL is a very good reference, especially for this latter challenge. The guide not only defines and explains each of the different concepts but gives examples that better illustrate these aspects while giving the user a glimpse into how they could use them for their own purposes. Especially for the more difficult sections, I really liked that I could replicate the code on my computer and see the results for myself. This aspect gave me a far better idea of how I could use these programs in conjunction to create the effects I want.