So I think I’ve finally found a good introductory book to read and keep on my bookshelf:
PHP Solutions: Dynamic Web Design Made Easy (Powers, Friends of Ed 2006). As the title implies, this book focuses primarily on PHP. However, the author does provide an introduction to MySQL and even a little bit on Apache. I like his pragmatic style and dry humor, and also appreciate that the sample site he refers to uses valid XHTML and (separated) CSS. In fact, he makes his code snippets abstract enough to realize this smart programming practice. Powers emphasizes security matters with PHP (which is great), provides examples of an image gallery and content management system, even mentions XAMPP (but not MAMP) as an installation option. He doesn’t go into more advanced topics like PEAR or object-orient PHP (though he covers PHP Data Objects, PDO). But that’s okay. Later on I can always look for another book with more comprehensive PHP information.
In addition, David Powers has a companion site containing code and updates.
I also browsed through Sams Tech Yourself PHP, MySQL and Apache: All in One (Meloni, Sams 2006, 3rd edition). This had some useful information on Apache (although nothing on mod_security) and some good introductory material for PHP, MySQL and database design. The writing didn’t quite grab me, even though I’d say this book would come in second to the Powers’ book, compared with the others I read for getting started with PHP and MySQL.
Previous articles on “Searching for a good PHP & MySQL book”: Part 1 and Part 2.
Next time I ought to discuss JavaScript books. 🙂
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