Spring Into PHP 5 229
Michael J. Ross writes "A professional programmer could at any time be tasked with developing a nontrivial application using a language or Web technology with which he or she is unfamiliar. A common response is to quickly scan code snippets in Internet newsgroups and online tutorials, copy and paste code that looks applicable to the task at hand, and then lose valuable time trying to make it all work and control what was created -- not unlike Dr. Frankenstein's experience. A smarter approach is to learn the language basics in sequence as rapidly as possible, not getting bogged down in excessive sample code. For developers seeking to learn PHP using the latter approach, Steven Holzner's Spring Into PHP 5, published by Addison-Wesley, would be an excellent choice." Read on for the rest of Ross's review.
| Spring Into PHP 5 | |
| author | Steven Holzner |
| pages | 340 |
| publisher | Addison-Wesley |
| rating | 8 |
| reviewer | Michael J. Ross |
| ISBN | 0131498622 |
| summary | A comprehensive and no-nonsense primer on the basics of PHP. |
This title is another entry in Addison-Wesley's promising "Spring Into" series, which, as suggested by the name, is aimed at developers who want to jump into a new technology and get up to speed as quickly as possible, but without missing any of the essentials. In the case of Holzner's PHP book, this goal is pursued by presenting the information in so-called "chunks," with each spanning just a few pages. Every chunk attempts to cover only one or a few related ideas, and is designed to build upon earlier chunks. The bulk of the explanation takes the form of code samples, which fortunately are short enough in length and clear enough in composition to be easily digestible. This is in stark contrast to far too many other programming books on the market, whose code samples can span multiple pages, making it difficult for the reader to discern all of the ideas that the author is trying to get across -- especially when the reader has to flip back and forth between pages. Even worse is how some authors (such as Deitel and Deitel) use lengthy code listings -- sometimes even complete applications -- to demonstrate many ideas at once, which can be quite confusing, especially for the newbie reading about a challenging language for the first time. As Holzner notes in his preface, his book is example-oriented, with dozens of tested code samples. But none are overwhelming.
Spring Into PHP 5 was published on 12 April 2005. It is organized into nine chapters, covering a range of topics: PHP essentials; operators and flow control; strings and arrays; functions; PHP in HTML pages; Web forms and input validation; object-oriented programming and file handling; PHP and databases; cookies, user sessions, FTP, e-mail, and hit counters. The book has two appendices. The first one, on PHP language elements, is remarkably complete, considering that it only fills 18 pages. Owners of the book will likely find themselves turning to this material quite frequently. The second appendix lists the most commonly used functions in PHP, particularly those dealing with arrays, strings, and files. These two appendices combined go a long way to making this book more than an approachable primer -- it could serve as a reference book for the language for any reader not required to dig into the more obscure intricacies of PHP. Readers with those needs will have to use more detailed sources, such as the online PHP Manual.
Each one of Holzner's chapters explains the core concepts, using the bite-sized chunks mentioned earlier. This approach is somewhat similar to the "recipes" found in many books published by O'Reilly Media, and it works well here for introducing a computer language. Holzner's writing style is clear yet never condescending, and concise yet never cryptic. The intended reader only really needs an understanding of simple HTML and how to edit text files, to make this book worthwhile and usable. The book is meaty with information, and yet not too lengthy. This is a refreshing change of pace from countless other computer language books that are bloated with redundant sample code and overly wide margins, apparently in an attempt to entice the consumer with maximum page count per dollar.
Some programming books try to move the novice along at too rapid a pace, which can get quite discouraging if and when the reader is unable to follow the discussion, and particularly if trying to follow the author in building a working example. But a far more common mistake among programming books, is to drag out the process with humongous code listings or redundant verbiage (such as following the senseless rule of telling the reader something three times -- a technique that makes far more sense for speechwriting). Holzner sets and maintains an excellent pace, partly by keeping the code snippets reasonably sized, and partly through his modular approach of presenting ideas in chunks.
The physical book itself is well made and attractive, with a readable font face and size, and intelligent use of bolding to highlight those lines of code upon which the reader should focus. My only complaint in terms of the presentation, is that the gray background used for the code samples could be lightened up a bit, to make the text itself stand out more, especially the bold text. All of the screenshots are in black-and-white, which works just fine, as there would be no value in using color in the majority of the sample Web pages.
The author does an excellent job of explaining and illustrating all of the most commonly used and needed elements of the language. But he provides little guidance as to when a particular technique or approach should be used over another. For instance, when explaining how the programmer can use PHP to connect to a MySQL database, the author presents two alternatives -- direct layer and Pear::DB -- but no recommendations as to the choice of one over the other. On the other hand, one might argue that to include recommendations of techniques, as well as language best practices, would require the book to be much longer than it is, which would detract from the book's goal of getting a programmer up to speed on PHP in an efficient manner. The serious programmer who wishes to take PHP to the next level, can be expected to read more advanced books, to learn from expert PHP developers posting in online newsgroups, and to learn from experience as the programmer creates his or her own applications.
Another potential point of criticism could be that the book does not adequately explain how to use PHP with the various available database systems, only covering MySQL (the industry's favorite for use with PHP). But the database chapter, number 8, provides just enough information for the beginner to get started and to try out the basics. For simple database needs, the material in that chapter might be sufficient. Yet for more extensive MySQL usage, including installation and administration, other resources will need to be consulted. This book is clearly not intended to be one of those PHP + MySQL combo books that have proven so popular during the past few years.
The publisher's Web site for the book does not appear to have any collection of errata. Here are some that I found: On page 6, in the NOTE, "scripts can be used" should read "scripts cannot be used." On page 20, "#/ message to the user" should read "# message to the user." On page 49, in Table 2-4, in the last line, the formatting is partly wrong. Examples 3-1 through 4-14 contain incorrect indentation. On page 158, the last line in the $_FILES['userfile'] values is missing $_FILES['userfile']['error']. In Examples 5-19 and 5-20, the <head> and <h1> tags are missing ": Take 1." On page 169, the formatting of Example 6-2 is inconsistent with the others.
Aside from the errata, there were some other weaknesses -- none of them serious: The chapter summaries are useless, like in most other technical books, as there's not enough details to be instructive, and more details would make them even more redundant and space-consuming. On page 176, in Figure 6-6's caption, "Navigating" should be "Redirected." On page 197, the discussion of HTTP authentication is too brief to enable the typical reader to implement it. For instance, there is no mention of where to set $_SERVER[ 'PHP_AUTH_USER' ] to make it work. Chapter 7, on object-oriented programming and file handling, should be split into two chapters. Combining them makes no sense, and the author does not even transition from the first topic to the second.
Like others in the "Spring Into" series, this title is reasonably priced, at only $29.99 list for over 300 pages of quality material. The publisher, Addison-Wesley, has a page on their Web site devoted to the book, which includes a book description, a table of contents, an index, source code from the book, and a link for downloading a sample chapter (in PDF format), namely, Chapter 3, which covers strings and arrays. The site also has a link to a bonus chapter (also in PDF) that explains how to draw graphics interactively on a Web server and then send them back to the browser. Oddly enough, the page's title is "Spring Into PHP 5 - $20.99," but there's no indication as to how to get the book for only $20.99. That could simply be a typo. But there is a link to purchase the book online for $26.99. For those looking to spring into Web server-side development in general, or PHP in particular, it would be money well spent.
Michael J. Ross is a freelance writer, computer consultant, and the editor of the free newsletter for PristinePlanet.com. You can purchase Spring Into PHP 5 from bn.com. Slashdot welcomes readers' book reviews -- to see your own review here, read the book review guidelines, then visit the submission page.
PHP vs Ruby On Rails (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:To buy or not to buy, the reviewer doesn't know (Score:2, Interesting)
PHP's effect on Linux's reputation. (Score:3, Interesting)
Now it's no secret that PHP has suffered from some pretty serious security issues as of late, such as the XML-RPC flaw. Then there are the routine problems of poorly developed blog and CMS systems being defaced. Many of these problems are attributed to inexperienced users writing what amounts to completely horrible code.
While the developers of PHP itself are very talented and quite respected, the users of PHP are starting to cause problems for the Linux community as a whole. Each time a site is defaced due to some poorly written PHP script, it is often portrayed as a vulnerability with Linux itself. Of course that is more often than not a complete falsity, as the fault does not lie in any way with the Linux kernel or its developers.
So while Linux advocates often promote the use of PHP for developing webapps on Linux, PHP is starting to become more of a liability. Every site running Linux and PHP that gets defaced due to terribly written PHP scripts reflects very poorly on Linux's public image. Now I have to ask: what is the Linux community willing to do about this problem?
Would they even be willing to go so far as to demand that the PHP developers include functionality to severely limit the ability of faulty scripts to run? It's quite difficult to say at this point. But if changes aren't made fairly soon, then things could degrade very quickly.
Re:PHP now obsolete? (Score:3, Interesting)
Having seen horribly written Perl used in the wrong situation, I know that Perl can take longer to develop than PHP to do some things. Maybe it could have been sped up by using CPAN modules, but the entire application could have been built in a matter of days. The Perl version probably took a month to build, based on the sheer amount of code.
PHP isn't going anywhere, just like Perl isn't. ASP/.Net are here to stay. I have complaints about all of the above - but they all have their uses, strengths, weaknesses, and an appropriate time to employ them.
* And after watching the 15 minute demonstration of Ruby on Rails, I'm going to join you in hoping that it isn't the next big thing.
Re:To buy or not to buy, the reviewer doesn't know (Score:3, Interesting)
But yet it does explain MySQL? Which is it? I'm not going to buy the book if the reviewer can't figure it out.
In other words, the book isn't centered around building DB-driven apps using PHP+MySQL, even if it does discuss the topic. The reviewer wishes it also had chapters on PHP+PostgreSQL or PHP+Oracle, but it doesn't. Seems pretty reasonable and consistent to me.
Re:i've gotta say.... (Score:3, Interesting)
I use php for most everything now, especially since php-cli came out. I even write my shell scripts in it now.
A few weeks ago I had to write a site that would allow users to input obituaries (I work in newspapers) and send off an XML feed and any binary images to an FTP server. The cool part is that the SAME script can be run from a command line or a web browser. Need the (l)users to input the obits? give them the website. If they need to send off a feed immediately (say for instance there is a typo on the website) it's a 1 click option for them. The script creates thubnails in png format from jsut about format you can think of. They can upload EPS, PNG, JPG, GIF, TIFF, BMP, or even a PDF, or anything else support by imagemagick [imagemagick.org]
Need to purge the database? run
The users love it because they can edit the obits in real time on the website, removing extra line breaks changing the photo or whatever else they need to do with a live preview.
Time to build it? roughly 4 hours and that includes setting up the PostgreSQL database.
Re:PHP now obsolete? (Score:3, Interesting)
FYI, PHP is a serious language. If it weren't so many people/companies wouldn't be using it. (and I mean beyond inexperienced users.. Yahoo for a example...)
btw, I have an intrest in Rudy, my current favorite language to use for admin purposes is Python. Some have claimed that a language cannot speed up the process of development. They have not used Python. I used PHP, bash, and even Perl for those purposes and Python cut the development time in half.
Thats my experience anyway. When I have time, I will sit down with a Rudy book. Also to note there is no documentation like php.net's documentation. I wish they would open source it, or other languages would mimic the PHP website.
PHP5 would cost us $15,000 to run (Score:3, Interesting)
PHP5 DOES runs great if you run it through Zend Platform (an opcode accelerator), which costs $1500 a year per dual-CPU server. There are free alternatives to this (eAccelerator and APC), but none of them optimize the new PHP5 class syntax like Zend, and talk of instability is common. Do some simple memory benchmarks and you will see (just load your classes, you dont even run any code it to see it guzzle memory!!).
For us to run PHP5, it would cost over $15,000 per year, which is more than our servers are worth!
I feel held at ransom by Zend. Small shops like us are left out in the cold. We are abandoning it and switching to mod_perl and Catalyst on CentOS4.
PHP does not feel "free" the way Perl or Apache are. I guess it is Zend's language after all.