BetterPHP

Hey guys, hope you're all doing well.

I'm thinking of buying a php book and was just wondering if anyone has any good suggestions?


Also I've seen a few books online but they're a few years old. How much has changed on the last few years in the world of PHP?

Thanks
Sal

Extra Tips: you don't need to buy a book in php there's a lot of option that you can do to learn php if you are beginner i recommend you to try this site http://www.w3schools.com

I dont recommend w3schools.com

Alot of the stuff is outdated or badly explained etc.

I personally would recommend these:

Youtube.com/user/thenewboston
youtube.com/user/thetutspace (my channel - Shameless advertising )
Youtube.com/user/phpacademy
net.tutsplus.com

Obviously, BetterPHP also.

bowersbros wrote:Alot of the stuff is outdated or badly explained etc.

It's okay for just looking things up when you don't want to watch a 10 minute video Their content is a bit outdated though

bowersbros wrote:Youtube.com/user/phpacademy

Be careful of the older videos / some of the newer ones. They tend to do some silly thing that you should not get into the habit of doing.

Heh, True that.

Also, regarding alex's video.

I'd say.. His basics videos are fairly good. but dont follow his other 'project' videos. They often are abit crap

I personally can say, that i really dont like learning coding of books. But thats probably, just my little bad experience of trying to learn "C", from some expensive book..
It was to dry and to much theory for me..maybe it was just a bad book, but i lack of a comparison, to tell it so.

What really gived me motivation, was definitely, some good youtube videos (http://www.youtube.com/user/PHPtutorialDeutsch its in german only though), on the basics of php, with an actuall "visual" person speaking to you!

Also having an idea of your goals, can be very helpful. For that you dont necessary need a book, to learn all the dry subject, to realize your idea! The story can be different of course, if you need that for school/work or something..


So the things that helped me to start with and keep me motivated, in few words are:

-for the basics, find someone, somewhat professional (at least looking and SPEAKING(!) like that...). yt is a good adress as the others already told so.
-http://www.w3schools.com helped/ps me, to look things up
-http://www.php.net -same
-http://www.google.com -obviously
-......not to tell of betterphp.......

Jaami wrote:I personally can say, that i really dont like learning coding of books.

Totally agree

It seems like the completely wrong way to do it to me. It's like learning a spoken language, you can get to know enough to get by in 2 years in a classroom or from a book. But if you just go to the country and start trying to talk to people you will pick up more in two weeks.

Different people learn in different ways. I really like books to get the general concept of things, while others don't. During my study we've used this book: http://www.amazon.com/Spring-Into-PHP-S ... 0131498622 (I'm not saying this is the best place to buy, just did a quick Google search).

The main thing to understand though, is that you should practice. Even if you start with a simple calculator script or string replacement script, practice, practice, practice. After you understand the basics, start a project for yourself and just keep adding features to it. A blog is a really good thing to start with. You can start off with just showing posts from the database and expand on that with an area for editors to add, edit and delete posts, user comments, votes, social sharing etc.

Best book ive come across so far is one called "Absolute beginners guide to PHP" starts completly from scratch, explains everything and then does a blog with CP walk though to bring you into it.

otherwise having a code editor window and another window with a video tutorial is what I have found best, you can type as you go and pause and go abck, without having to look up and down from a book.

The book I have found to be good when not able to use a PC, since i read the pdf version on my jb ipod