Advanced PHP Programming

I've been programming in PHP full-time for 5 years now. I remember when I was first learning, how all the books felt a little over my head, in a good way. Very slowly I understood things that didn't make sense before. And then very slowly I'd start to incorporate those things into my day-to-day programming.After 2 years or so, I missed that feeling. I'd check out new PHP books and flip through every chapter saying, "Yeah yeah yeah...". I realized I had become an expert.I was honestly impressed looking at the table of contents of this book. This is NOT your usual PHP book! That's obvious right away. So I ordered it. And it just arrived yesterday.I was up all night reading it, and again today. This is the most amazing PHP book for experienced PHP programmers I've ever seen. (Wait - this is the ONLY book for experienced PHP programmers I've ever seen!)The author really knows his stuff, and uses best-practices, throughout. Really well thought-out code with a lot to learn from.The fact that it's all based on the new PHP5 style makes it even better! A great way to get to know the new object approach to PHP5: to see it in real-world examples, so that after a few hours with this book it's second-nature.For the first time in three years, I feel wonderfully over-my-head with a LOT to learn here in this one amazing book. Thanks George!

By page 19, I had already encountered several examples that contained, not typos, but logical coding errors. Was this book edited at all by anyone? Is it really that hard to test the included code examples? Logical coding errors make me distrust the abilities of the author, since there is no excuse for writing code which any programmer can instantly identify as incorrect. Maybe the 2nd edition will be better.

PHP *needs* capable writers, like this one. Developers, who take time to write, seem rare - compared to writers, who rarely get to do development projects, anymore. This author is clearly a very experienced practitioner. He outlined a great table of contents.He advocates and provides guidance for adhering to best practices, regarding design patterns, scalability, caching, unit testing, profiling & tuning etc. The last 1/6 of the book is about C language PHP extension. Excellent "Further reading" suggestions are provided at the end of each chapter.Out of a high-volume PHP site developer, since 1999, I would expect creative examples. If your site provides Fibonacci sequences and readability scores web services, you'll find this book highly useful. Though on page 1, the author PROMISES NO* "foo-bar" examples, he provides plenty (on pages: 19, 53, 56, 68, 102, 158, 166, 227, 230, 255, 268, 274, 325, 373, 405, 466, 483, 484, 563). Since a reader devotes plenty of time to contemplating foo-bar examples, I came to realize why they bother me so much ... they're unimaginative (i.e. mentally lazy), regarding pragmatic applications for the technology.I found myself constantly marking comma's in the text - to ease the readability and follow what was being said. If the author doesn't know where to put comma's, the editors should! There's no bold text - to illustrate lessons within the code. As far as I can remember, there's no offer of complete code (e.g. from a website), either.This is a good, author with generally readable writing style and a wealth of experience to convey. I wouldn't dissuade anyone from buying this book; there's a tremendous amount to be learned and gained from this ... probably the most advanced PHP text, available. I'm just a bit disappointed, because, though it's very good, it could have been world class. I would buy future books from this author; I hope that they get even better!

Caveat: I am only basing my review on the sample chapter on Performance Tuning, a draft copy of the chapter on Zend Engine Internals, and the table of contents. Also, I may be biased because I've met George and he's really hard not to like--I'll try harder next time.Go read the reviews of other PHP authors' blogs by doing a Feedster search of this book, you'll find that they highly recommend this book, sometimes over their own books!Looking at the chapter list, you can see the topics covered are not what you see in a typical PHP book. In fact, if you don't know PHP, this is definitely not the book to be learning out of. If you don't know how to program, this is not the book to be learning out of. But if you use PHP professionally and need to get that extra mile or scale your PHP to a large site, then this is definitely the book to be buying.There are simply no books, articles, or web references that provide a bird's eye view of the Zend Engine Internals. That is, until this book. The car analogy in this chapter is very apt for the potential reader of this book on a whole. If all you do is use PHP to get you from "point A to B" you certainly don't need this book. But if you are a PHP professional who is responsible for a high performance website, then you need to know the content of this book cold.The chapter on Performance Tuning has a lot of gems you can't find in any other PHP reference and is essential knowledge when you use PHP on large sites. According to Michael Radwin, George's APD (the tool referenced in the chapter), is used to performance tune parts of Yahoo. But George also gives a nod to competing projects mentioning their strengths and weaknesses. (You can see why it's hard not to like the guy, his pragmatism supersedes his ego in every page.)This neatly complements any other PHP book on the shelf (including any other "professional" PHP book). And I'll definitely have to give an updated review after I've read the other chapters.I'm sure it will pay for itself many times over. Believe me, I speak from experience to know that George speaks from experience (he was involved in a PHP-based company that drove a company I worked for out of business).(And to all of you who have received advanced copies... Grr!)

Previously I didn't can write an OOP php code, but I read in this book, and now I understand it how it works. Thx.

The book is a great study guide or desk reference for any PHP developer from beginner moving into advanced PHP to a seasoned Pro... get it its great.

I love the front cover fantastic!

It was a very good book in 2004 when it was first launched. 15 years have passed, stay away.

For people familiar with the code or is exposed to allot of coding language to adapt to coding in PHP

It's a good book if you are really introduced in PHP programming. It's a good book for those who want to go from good to expertise programmers. It's one of that levels quite impossible to find.

PHP5を対象とした実践的なWebアプリケーション構築手法に関する解説書です。中級向けで初心者にはやや難解かもしれませんが，テストやデバッグの手法，デザインパターン，パフォーマンスチューニングといった開発手法の話をはじめ，SmartyやWebサービス，Zend拡張モジュールの技術解説など，類書にはない非常に内容の濃い本です。小さな字で書かれているのに，650ページもあります。PHPを存分に使いこなしたい方にお勧めします。