PHP reading recommendations for beginner

fmueller

Is there any web site or book that gives a good intro into PHP for a beginner? I have a basic knowledge of HTML and CSS - enough for me to get by - and would like to achieve the same for PHP, about which I know absolutely nothing.

Many thanks

Frank

airbornflght

well, php can parse html, but other than that it is really more of a programing language than a scripting language imo. So first I would go buy a beginners programming book to teach you the basic principles.

jared

I've read Learning PHP5 by O'Reilly and it's pretty good. Really basic at first, so if you are new to PHP I think it would be up your alley.

I'm sure Keebs might have a few suggestions of his own, since he is one of our resident PHP ninjas.

Cheers!

Linc

That's true, I have a few!

I cut my teeth on PHP Visual Quickstart Guide (Larry Ullman), which I highly recommend as a way of getting started from the very, very basics. I believe there is also a PHP Visual Quickpro Guide guide that you can follow up with (Visual Quickstart/pro is a wide series of books on many coding and software topics).

After that, you will know enough to be dangerous I then turned to PHP Cookbook (O'Reilly) as my main "But how the heck do I do that?" resource once I had my grounding. Their "pocket guides" to CSS and HTML are never far from me either.

If you're really into making websites, a must read is Jeff Zeldman's Designing with Web Standards. It's a light and fun read, and it's been absolutely fundamental to starting me on the right path of practices when making a site

Let me know if you need any other resources... the list goes on and on, heh.

fmueller

Many thanks, guys! This should give me plenty of light reading material over Easter

I'll let you know when I need more!

Greetings

Frank