Chris,
Apologies for the belated response/absence.
I find myself constantly referring to Welling and Thomson ("PHP and MySQL Web
Development", 0-672-31784-2) and
happily recommend it to you. Apart from referring to the user as "she" which (both men
and women say) interrupts
the smooth flow of the text (some misplaced sex/gender domination agenda?) it is well
written and contains a
good balance of theory and worked-examples/code. The text is accompanied by a CD-ROM
which includes an
electronic version of the text and copies of the code.
However, from the Introduction/Why You Should Read This Book:
"This book is aimed at readers who already know at least the basics of HTML and have
done some programming in a
modern programming language before, but have not necessarily programmed for the
Internet or used a relational
datbase. If you are a beginning programmer, you should still find this book useful,
but it might take you a
little longer to digest. We've tried not to leave out any basic concepts, but we do
cover them at speed."
I would concur with this assessment, and thus will qualify the comment (below) "decent
primers". In relation to
people 'converting' (?translating) from using one (scripting/programming) language to
PHP, I agree. You said
"most will have no experience with programming at all" and so it is relevant to point
out that the coverage is
only slightly more than 'coding' in scope, and does not intend/pretend to introduce
concepts of programming.
Accordingly you would either need a supplementary text or roll-your-own. A major
problem that is observed
regularly in this forum is beginners getting hung up on abstracting HTML; that PHP is
not speaking directly to
the browser, but producing HTML that does so. Your students will likely suffer this,
without the provision of
some supplementary coverage/background to programming.
Your comment appears to anticipate the issue. However I'm not sure which "modern
programming language" W&T might
mean, because C-type languages have strong data-typing and PHP does not, and even VB
and Pascal seem to be
taught with an object-oriented approach which PHP can only emulate hesitantly. On the
other hand, depending upon
the history/experience of your students, I wonder whether experience with Word or
Excel macros might be 'enough'
of an introduction to 'programming'? (I have not taught 'programming' beyond SQL for
many, many years)
Personal experience: (I was 'in' programming 25 yrs ago) I have not done much coding
recently - and then at the
MS 'macro' level, and so found myself repetetively reading the 'intro coding'
sections, eg the for and do-while
constructs, whereas RDBMS familiarity saw me sailing through the introduction to
SQL/MySQL with ease. I have
taken to the PHP/MySQL combination like the proverbial duck, and will cheerfully
credit an exhaustive/religious
consumption of W&T's 800+ pages for my 'success'. However to people who have never
programmed before I think the
first chapters will represent a v.steep learning curve.
Regards,
=dn
(Post-Grad quals and many years in Vocational Training - amongst other things)
> I agree with Chris and Richard, "PHP and MySQL Web Development" by Welling
> and Thomson, from SAMS. ISBN 0-672-31784-2 is a great book which contains
> primers for both PHP and MYSQL and then many chapters on how to use them
> together in real world environments.
>
> Chris Lott <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote in message
> [EMAIL PROTECTED]">news:[EMAIL PROTECTED]...
> > I'll be teaching a web development class in the Spring in which I plan to
> > focus on PHP and MySQL as primary tools. These will be students who have
> > experience with HTML And web design, but most will have no experience with
> > programming at all.
> >
> > I need recommendations for book(s) that will serve as decent primers... I
> > expect that the PHP book will have enough of the fundamentals of
> programming
> > to set them on the right path...
> >
> > Any suggestions for a MySQL book would be great. If both were in one book,
> > even better!
> >
> > --
> > Chris Lott <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
>
>
>
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