Comments on: Learning PHP, MySQL, and JavaScript: A Step-By-Step Guide to Creating Dynamic Websites (Animal Guide)

By: Development Decoded: Build a website in 1 hour, for beginners!

Development Decoded: Build a website in 1 hour, for beginners! — Thu, 07 Oct 2010 08:37:30 +0000

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By: W. R. Dieter

W. R. Dieter — Mon, 06 Sep 2010 04:51:31 +0000

Review by W. R. Dieter for Learning PHP, MySQL, and JavaScript: A Step-By-Step Guide to Creating Dynamic Websites (Animal Guide) Rating: Writing an introductory book on a topic like web programming is always difficult because the audience is varied. The readers will range from complete newbies who have never written a program before to experts in other technologies writing their first web pages, or perhaps even experts in other web technologies using these technologies for the first time.

PHP, MySQL & JavaScript perhaps goes a bit fast for someone with no programming experience whatsoever, but does not assume expert programmer status. The PHP and MySQL sections are very well explained and would be great for someone with little experience. For someone with a lot of experience in other programming languages, the PHP section might be a bit slow, but can fairly easily be skimmed to get the main content.

The MySQL section was a great, but somewhat short, introduction to relational databases. A little more depth might be helpful. Many volumes have been written on relational databases, elsewhere, however.

The JavaScript section went at a good pace for someone who already has quite a bit of programming experience. It might be a bit fast for someone at the level that the PHP section assumes. Readers who are new to programming will have enough information to write working code, even if they don't understand all of the nuances behind the language.

Overall the book is a good starting off point for anyone wanting to learn web development with PHP, MySQL, and JavaScript. Readers with little programming experience should be able to follow the discussion without much trouble. The information is organized in a orderly way, so more experienced developers can skim or skip over what they already know.

By: Derek DeHart

Derek DeHart — Mon, 06 Sep 2010 04:36:02 +0000

Review by Derek DeHart for Learning PHP, MySQL, and JavaScript: A Step-By-Step Guide to Creating Dynamic Websites (Animal Guide) Rating: I had the pleasure of being a technical reviewer for the book, and this follow-up to O'Reilly's Learning PHP & MySQL is an enormous improvement over its predecessors. Robin Nixon maintains a comfortable, conversational tone throughout the text, so newcomers to the topic should not find the material daunting. The contents are very well targeted to novices of the craft, cutting out needless technical details and jargon to focus on what a new developer ought to know to create a functioning website. This is not a reference manual or intended for advanced users, but most people will find something useful within its pages, even if all you're looking for is a refresher on the topics.

By: Running Bill

Running Bill — Mon, 06 Sep 2010 04:14:12 +0000

Review by Running Bill for Learning PHP, MySQL, and JavaScript: A Step-By-Step Guide to Creating Dynamic Websites (Animal Guide) Rating: I had to come back and re-review this book. I'm taking off two stars off my rating, one for the overload of typos I found as I got deeper into the book and for some of the examples NOT being "real world" enough. I know that sounds picky but many of the examples could have served better as real scripts but instead he made some questionable choices that will make you pretty much have to start from scratch to make your own. They just could've been more practical.

On the positive side, I do agree with what's already been said about the author communicating well. The reason I was really excited about this title and why I'm loving it so much as I go through it is that it focuses on combining all three and talks about real-world situations. You might read a PHP or javascript book that does the job teaching you those on their own but when it's time to close the book and use them on a real website, you'd be lost or Googling a LOT of things. Most "cool" sites do a good job of making their scripting languages work well together, and this book will show you how to do that, and it serves as a good jump-off for more advanced scripting later. It's like the author said "I know what you're trying to accomplish, here's how to do it."

Good job.