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originally posted by PurpleMonkey
have any been written yet?
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Leon Atkinson has finished (and it's published) along with PHP co-creator Zeev Suraski, the 3rd edition of
PHP Core Programming --- "fully revised for PHP 5". I'd recommend it as reference material only; it's hardly a "good read" IMHO, as the majority of its many pages are basically just the PHP manual, with definitions of every steenking function known to the language and examples similar to those in the online manual, etc. On the other hand, I'm biased, and like quirkly little tomes that are built for simpler minds, like the "dummies" series and stuff from PeachPit Press. I don't know if the new Wrox Publishing offering (written by six of our own here) is any better, or handles any material on v5.
Anyway, here's some of the cover hype:
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"The authoritative guide to real-world development with the new PHP 5"
"Brand-new coverage of PHP design patterns, object techniques, and XML"
"Updated coverage of syntax, functions, algorithms and PHP software engineering"
"Includes 650+ downloaded code examples"
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Before you read the following: I must be honest, I've skipped around quite a bit. I bought it because I had the hots for a new book, and nothing else in the stacks at the time even mentioned that PHP 5 existed ... or seemed to have more than a cursory nod to OOP. I figured "PHP is going kinda OOP, surely they'll have a lot of info on that ...."
The chapter on OOP was disappointing to me --- probably because I was really looking for a "OOP for dummies" type read, and Leon just assumes that if you want to do OOP you already grok the concept (at least a little 'grok' heh...)
. The book does cover the new features re: OOP and all new functionality (except for any changes since press time).
Probably the best chapters are the last few: an overview of system design principles, including some examples of the GoF "patterns", etc, "Efficiency and Debugging", and perhaps the overview of the development/history of PHP in Chapter One. There is also a good quantity of tabular and list type data (e.g. every configure argument accepted, operators table, ascii codes, escape sequences, and most every constant or option for each function in the larger part of the book).
As for me, I feel like my money is better spent on a good "interesting" read that stretches my thought processes instead of a good "reference book" I have to pay somebody to dust once a month ... YMMV, of course. Maybe there's a place for both.
... and I am with you I am looking for something other then a reference book ... something readable ... 
Linear Mode
