I stick with the Wrox publications : for me 'Professional PHP' and 'Beginning PHP Databases' (with very good section about the DB class in PEAR) serve me in almost all my needs. The online manual though serves about 95 % of my queries.
-----Oorspronkelijk bericht----- Van: Joel Rees [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Verzonden: Tuesday, June 17, 2003 9:57 AM Aan: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Onderwerp: Re: [PHP] Good PHP Books (topic wandering) > Some of the O'Reilly books that I thought were > not perfect: > - All books about Perl. Now that we have nice > c-like script languages like PHP, Python and > Javascript who still wants to study the mess > that Perl is? Heh. PHP, Python, Javascript? It's all perl to me. ;-) The O'Reilly books, as has been noted, are the standard references on perl. > - The introduction to Ruby, probably called Ruby in > a Nutshell. I had read the introductory article > in DrDobbs by the author of the language and the > language seemed nice, but whilst reading the > book I noticed more and more cases of half-Perl > ugliness. The language Ruby was designed by > a Japanese and a lot of Japanese designs are > flawed by being a seemingly random combination > of aspects from Western designs. Ruby is also a dialect of perl, and very well done. You might want to take a closer look at what seems random to you now. But it seems to me you are criticizing languages rather than books in the above. > - The Java in a Nutshell book. It consisted mainly > of a collection of standard library functions but > with to few details to be of any use. Java is a huge language and full of details. Once I got used to Java, O'Reilly's Java in a Nutshell turned out to be just right to have on my desk. The Examples volume is a necessity. PHP's on-line docs are great because PHP is small and glosses over a lot of details. Sun's on-line docs for Java just don't work as primary source because you have to see too much through that itty-bitty seventeen inch screen. (When monitors are 600dpi, and cheap and thin enough that we can have seven or eight of them sitting on our desk, then maybe we can finally get rid of books.) > I propose that when looking for a book on a certain > subject: > - You check out if there is an O'Reilly book about it > and when not, why not? > - Compare any other book you encounter with the O'Reilly > book and see if it is better. It might happen in > selected cases. That's probably not a bad approach. > By the way, I think that the online PHP-manual at php.net > is very good so I have no need for a PHP book, No argument with that. > except that > I once bought O'Reilly's PHP Kort en Krachtig (the Dutch > translation of the PHP Pocket Reference, probably the > first version of 2000). Of course I would have bought > the English version if it had been in stock here. The > Dutch translations of computer books are often very > flawed, plus that it's useful to learn the English > terms. I imagine things will improve with Dutch. Japanese docs have definitely been improving -- less reliance on technical words borrowed from English, greater accuracy when choosing native terminology, less Janglish grammar. -- Joel Rees <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> -- PHP General Mailing List (http://www.php.net/) To unsubscribe, visit: http://www.php.net/unsub.php -- PHP General Mailing List (http://www.php.net/) To unsubscribe, visit: http://www.php.net/unsub.php
