Robin Nixon's PHP Crash Course: Learn PHP in 14 easy lessons [Kindle Edition]

I am an experienced programmer of 30+ years, so I have a good grasp of language constructs. And learned long ago that most programming languages do pretty much the same thing. You just have to pick up on each language's grammar and syntax. And this book accomplishes that very well. And has been a very quick read with my a yellow highlighter in hand. And, despite what I just said, PHP has surprised me with some of it's features -- and it is clear that, as an open source language, fellow developers have been busy adding in some very nice features. So kudos to them. And lucky for us.

I also learned that PHP stands for "Personal Home Page" tools -- as it was named by its initial developer.

And will be picking up Robin's other crash course quides here shortly to add to my library. I like the fact that, at this time anyway, they are all fairly recent and current.

My one negative is that, despite the book's claim, there are places where I'm sure some programming background is helpful as, being a crash course, topics are covered very quickly. Even there, though, the presentation is very logical and well thought out. With references to official PHP online guides provided throughout. And so works well as a quick start guide.

To begin with, I am very impressed with this book. Only halfway through it so far and already I feel like I can begin to grasp (having never programmed in my life, with only a little background in HTML/CSS) the intent, the undercurrent, the potential of the PHP language (not to mention the meaning, and how to write the code effectively). That said, why would I recommend this book?

I would recommend it for a few reasons. To begin with, I started my little educational trip by reading the "For Dummies" brand (both books). Let me be the first to dispel any notions that you will get all of what you need there: you won't. Honestly you need a foundation that gives you blocks of information (with plenty of direction as to what those blocks mean and do) to start with instead of the full architects blueprint that you're supposed to interpret and comprehend. 'For Dummies' is a great brand and these particular books on PHP are great books for learning to set up your first local server, and have good advice on different IDE programs to use for writing and testing code (which you can get with Robin Nixon's PHP book here), but for me it was an exercise in frustration mostly because I felt that the 'For Dummies' books were geared towards someone who at least has written Javascript or perhaps had prior programming experience with Java or C+, and secondly because most examples using variables and what not, were math examples. So if, like me, your forte is not math (and it makes your eyes glaze over - quickly), then, pick up this book. Examples abound with explanations that make it easy to figure out what's going on (even when a little math is slipped in).

While I would agree with other reviews that it's not a full compendium on PHP, it's not meant to be. I would think of it as a quick start guide for a product you just bought. Nothing seriously technical, but enough to get started with out having to read the PHP manual which is a serious tome. Furthermore it struck me as someone finally speaking English (whereas before PHP tutorials/learning guides had been Greek, Russian, and a sprinkle of Klingon)so that I could understand enough to go and look at the PHP manual (which is NOT helpful if you're a beginner) or at W3Schools site's tutorials (helpful but still not enough meat) and better understand not only what I was looking for, but what it all meant when I finally found it.

I have spent some dinero and a lot of time scouring the net for something that I could grasp onto. Tutorials out the wazoo, looking at different people's code, looking at 'pre-written code' and cross referencing it with the PHP manual. Nothing has helped like this book. This book is it. This is where it all begins. Pick this book up, read it first, then go and click on some of the GREAT resources Robin Nixon put in the book for further reading. It will save you hours of frustration later and it's fantastically priced in addition to being well written. I for one, will be picking up more of his books as I delve further into the world of web design/development, et al.

I have programmed on and off in different languages for years and this book helped me get back into PHP. The author starts from the basics of PHP and moves into more advanced concepts slowly. The chapters are short, yet detailed enough to provide good examples and hold your interest. I also learned some new ways that I can use arrays and OOP. I'm not sure if it's detailed enough for a beginner but if you are a fast learner who likes to learn by examples, I think you will benefit from this.