Comments about oreilly Head First PHP & MySQL:

I came in with only HTML/CSS knowledge and since my new position at a web development company demanded more, I bought this book. It was extremely helpful through visual representations and clever examples that kept my interest and made it more about application then pages upon pages of text. It explained the kind of programming details that I never received in previous books about HTML and CSS (for example, any time they added code that wasn't a part of the chapter's lesson, instead of leaving me to piece it together, they explain it thoroughly). Overall, the book was a pleasure to read and I am sure I will be purchasing more Head First books in the future. In regards to my work performance, it gave me a great foundation to create database oriented websites. The book gave me all of the tools I needed to get into my job and understand what was going on and expand upon and improve on what is already there. This has led to much-increased work performance and a satisfied employer. One complaint I have is near the end of the book, specifically about creating graphics through the PHP GD library, the author stopped explaining added code with as much detail as before. This led to me doing what I hadn't needed to do before, get on the internet and search. Other than that, I am an extremely satisfied customer. Thanks.

Comments about oreilly Head First PHP & MySQL:

I am a college student trying to learn PHP with MYSQL... I went through 3 text books finding myself with zero knowledge retained... THIS BOOK IS AMAZING! After going through this text book, I successfully made an online classifieds website fully with PHP. TO REPHRASE: I had zero knowledge of PHP or MYSQL to being able to create and understand how my new site works. THANK YOU HEAD FIRST! Next purchase, HeadFirst C#

Comments about oreilly Head First PHP & MySQL:

I've used head first books before and never had trouble like I've had with this one. I can't make it though chapter 2. Basic information on how to start the mysql terminal or the phpMyAdmin tools are not available. If the book wasn't so expensive, it would be in the trash just due to frustration.

Comments about oreilly Head First PHP & MySQL:

I bought this book because I am a newcomer to PHP and MySQL. It is very deceiving the way it is described, it doesn't provide great detail in explaining things as it state in the "how to use this book" section, for instance on page 65 it says you can find the code for this command on their website but thats all it says its like trying to find a needle in a haystack, there is a Chapter 2 example but it doesn't explain how to download it.....very very confusing. I would not recommend this book for a beginner, you have to have some sort of knowledge on MySQL databases. I am very disappointed in this book. Giving this book a one star rating is being too generous.

Comments about oreilly Head First PHP & MySQL:

I had to buy this book for my computer online class. We depend on the book greatly to explain everything. The majority of us is having a difficult time following the book. There is a lot of guess work involved. The book gives hints on how to do it, but not the answers. It does not give a complete example of what the finished product should look like. Instead it leaves giant blank spaces in their examples and expects you to figure it out. The book has bunch of arrows and pictures. It is not easy to look up specific terms such as Boolean. It would be nice if it bold only important terms such as "condition", instead of parts of a sentence such as "performing an action". Wish the book did more teaching and showed finished examples and less pages on "Sharpen your pencil","exercise", and pictures with jokes on them.

Pro- It is a different style of teaching. Everyone learns differently. The style may work for some, but it is not working for me.

Comments about oreilly Head First PHP & MySQL:

The teaching methodology used in this series works quite well. It makes it fun to work through the exercises, and the variety of ways the information is presented succeeds at getting the important stuff into your brain. I'm actually a little sad that I'm finished, which is not normally how I feel about technical books.

I took one star off for the errata. I understand that it's nearly impossible to deliver a book like this without some, and the errata sections on this site as well as the resource of the forum for this book helped get around problems presented by most of the errors, but there were some where it seemed like nobody had sat down and worked through the book prior to it being released. In any case, using the online errata, the forum, and checking against the downloadable script samples will get you through but patience and perseverance are required.

I've heard criticisms about this book coming up short when covering installing a staging environment. I just used my web host so I didn't have to set up a server on a local machine. I know there is a high potential for things to be difficult in setting up a staging environment, but a book like this simply can't cover all that in detail without becoming twice the size.

If you're planning to set up your own web server and PHP installation to work through this book, do yourself a favor and DON'T unless you already know what you're doing, or work through a book on setting up a web server and PHP installation before you start this book. Or, easier still, just use a web hosting company that has robust support for PHP and MySQL. Troubleshooting your scripts will be challenging enough without having to figure out if the problemhas something to do with your DIY web server environment.

Comments about oreilly Head First PHP & MySQL:

Hands on work, all the examples kept me interested, This is how everyone should learn PHP and MySQL. Thanks to this book witch i still reference by the way, I moved on to learning GD library, developing log in scripts, and many other php and mysql code.

Comments about oreilly Head First PHP & MySQL:

The examples and overall depth of coverage provide a good foundation if you're just getting underway in PHP development, but don't let the number of pages fool you. This is not an exhaustive reference. There are lots of exercises, photos and general white space that make the book very readable, but they also bury the needles of content in a haystack of pages. If you are new to mysql/php development, this is a great book to start with, but you'll want to add some other references to your library if you get serious.

Comments about oreilly Head First PHP & MySQL:

I first picked up this book to brush up on the basics of PHP programming and to learn how to interface it with MySQL to begin developing a web interface for the users of my company.

The style of the head first books are perfect for sitting down in front of your computer and learning a new subject. I found this particular one helpful with it's examples, and shows where common mistakes can occur.

While the examples were a little on the simple side, they helped pound the information into your head to stay. There were a great number of errors in the examples, but anyone who is really thinking about them will notice these in a heartbeat.

The light and quippy writing made this more of a novel like read than a text book, and I found myself breezing rather quickly through the book.

The book is a little information light for the size of it, but it is a great start into PHP programming and MySQL for web use. I recommend this for folks who already know XHTML and have a little scripting experience. Definitely read Head First HTML with CSS & XHTML first.

Comments about oreilly Head First PHP & MySQL:

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