I recommend The Manual. www.php.net/manual/en/
Honestly it's the best book you can read in the beginning. There are tons of examples and comments and you'll know exactly what's going on. No, you don't have to read every function, but at least read the first page for each category, that'll give you an idea of where to look when you have questions. After you've read that, then start on some tutorials. I've never touched a book for PHP. You don't need it with all of the free resources online. As for databases, yeah, MySQL is generally more popular because it's easy to use and is available on almost any platform. I've never seen a windows binary for PGSQL, although you can compile it yourself. PG is more robust and implements more features, but for most websites, these are features you'll never need. My $0.02 ---John Holmes... ----- Original Message ----- From: "Chris Montgomery" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Thursday, April 25, 2002 9:02 AM Subject: [PHP] Newbie Book & Database Question > Howdy, > > I have been developing with ColdFusion for nearly five years and want to > learn PHP. For someone who has never done anything with PHP before, what > *one* book would you recommend as a good primer to get started learning PHP? > > Also, do most PHPers use MySQL as your database when building dynamic web > sites, or do you prefer alternative databases like Postgres? From what I > have seen from afar, MySQL seems to be the dominant one, but I have read > that Postgres is more robust. > > Thanks in advance and cheers from San Antonio, > > Chris Montgomery [EMAIL PROTECTED] > > Airtight Web Services http://www.airtightweb.com > Web Development, Web Project Management, Software Sales > 210-490-3249/888-745-7603 > > > -- > 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
