Customer Reviews

PHP6 and MySQL Bible

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

Hello.

I am a web developer with experience in multiple languages.

I'd say, this book is good, but not "great", and definitely not a "bible" (if you consider the bible a good thing).

PROS
---Part 1(PHP) is very well organized, and gives you an ordered path to learn PHP.
---The same goes with part III(advanced PHP).
---It gives a chunk of useful PHP things at the end in part V.

CONS
---Part 2 was nearly horrifying. Seeing as how this book was written even before PHP 6 came out, you would assume the authors would stop using deprecated HTML tags. Also, when is says "PHP and MySQL", it means exactly that. The author is assuming you already know SQL, and tries to throw in the whole SQL language in maybe a chapter and a half.

YOU PICKS (Things I don't care about, but some people might, I didn't read most of these)
---Part IV has a bunch of chapters explaining how to work with other databases (postgreSQL, Oracle, etc)
---Part VI has some case studies(which I read, but you know...)
---The appendix has some references for C, Perl, Pear, and HTML backgrounds.

All in all, I think it is worth getting, but don't bother getting a $70 new copy thinking it will be a life-long reference... get the $5 used one, and when you're done, it probably won't have a very prominant place on your bookshelf.

The Title says it all that they have no idea what they are publishing or what is being written about "PHP6 and MySQL Bible (Bible (Wiley)) (Paperback)" PHP6 does not exist the 'just barely recent released' version is 5.3.x - where do they get that 6 from ?

This is not the only book that offers PHP6 (which again 'Does Not Exist') they are mislead and they are business people writing books who have no idea what they are writing about.

Anyways stay away from a book that teaches a version 'non existing'

Good Luck

PHP 6 and MySQL 6?

The problem with that is that PHP is about to release their major update (5.3) and MySQL just released theirs (5.1). Both of these versions took years to develop. Neither MySQL nor PHP have even finalized their plans for their version 6, and in the case of PHP they've made changes to the PHP 5.3 API in just the last couple of weeks.

Because it would be completely idiotic to try to predict what the results of a huge update are going to be years in advance, I can only come to one conclusion- our authors are psychic.

We should give these authors a round of applause- I know that if I could predict the future, I wouldn't be using my talents to get sneak peaks on my favorite web development tools, I would be going for the lottery tickets and superbowl wins. This way I can afford to spend money on quality books put together by top notch marketing departments and clueless authors.

This is a great reference book for PHP and MySQL. I wouldn't recommend it if you are wanting to use it as the soul purpose of learning from scratch, but it is great for someone who is a least somewhat familiar with PHP and MySQL.