After searching non-stop for tutorials on the internet about PHP, with no avail, or should I clarify, without finding any good tutorial on the internet, I decided to look up for a book that will help me learn PHP easily and without too many problems. "Programming PHP: Second Edition" is the first book that I found and definitely called my attention (not the animal on the cover... But that's definitely another story for another time).
So I traveled to the US and I found this book on the US, as I couldn't import it due to the lack of a credit card. I started to read it, and it made things very simple. It teaches you the syntax, and the core features of the language in a concise and clear way.
Although, like everyone trying to learn anything, needed or not, I did find some rocks on the field while trying to learn with this book, and unfortunately, the book didn't help me solve many of the problems I found. For instance, I could never use the graphics library for PHP because it seems I didn't have it installed back in that time, and the book does mention some weird command line stuff, but unfortunately, not everyone has a lot of knowledge on Command Lines. Personally I am illiterate when it comes to Command Lines, specially the Linux one (which is the one I believe the book shows you)... But come on! I am pretty sure a lot of the people that bought this book didn't even know what Linux was. It could have tough you a bit more about command line compiling for the PHP libraries you can get, and about the Linux Command Line. It definitely would have been a small yet useful knowledge.
This book also covers the main pillars of OOP (Object Oriented Programming), and I have to say I am very satisfied for this, as with this pillars I actually did well when I saw OOP in C++. But after a while, I noticed the OOP part was not completed in a way, and considering the fact OOP is a first time complex concept for new programmers, they should have talked more about OOP and they should have given more examples regarding classes and objects/instantiation. Deeper coverage on abstraction and Polymorphism could have been very nice too.
It covers the use of databases too, but for some reason they didn't mention MySQL at all, which is the most used Database system for PHP if I am not mistaken...
Never the less, while it has its complex moments, and the OOP part is sort of incomplete, no one I know really takes a deep look at OOP the first time they see the concept. And even though the Database concepts are not really well covered, there are other books dedicated to that. The book still covers its main purpose of teaching PHP and the main features, and the syntax of course.
I recommend this book to anyone that is interested in learning PHP and (probably) about the compatible databases with PHP. Though I recommend you use this book for PHP and just for PHP. The whole Databases part deals with objects and OOP, and not all of it is covered in the book.
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