O'Reilly Releases "Programming PHP, Second Edition"

Back in 1995 when Rasmus Lerdorf released PHP/FI it was a loosely assembled set of tools. Today, PHP is the most widely used programming language on the Web, with more than forty percent of all web applications written in PHP. It'is installed on more than twenty-two million domain servers (source: Netcraft). A mature, well designed language with good object-oriented features, it boasts of an impressive--yet simple--feature set. Marc Andreessen, chairman of Opsware Inc. and founder of Netscape Communications, recently described PHP as having replaced Java as the ideal programming language for the Web.

Kevin Tatroe, Rasmus Lesdorf, and Peter Macintyre, the authors of the new edition of "Programming PHP", put it succinctly: "PHP is a simple yet powerful language designed for creating HTML content." The recent release of their book brings up to date the classic text on PHP. As Peter Macintyre says, "It is actually better to have it come out now since PHP 5 is a little more mature. We can address some of the most recently added features like PDO, as opposed to the many other titles that came out right on the heels of the release of PHP 5.0. Our book addresses the more mature PHP 5."

This book is an authoritative guide to PHP 5 filled with the unique knowledge of the creator of PHP and other PHP experts. The book explains PHP language syntax and programming techniques in a clear and concise manner, with numerous examples that illustrate both correct usage and common idioms. It also includes style tips and practical programming advice that will help readers become top-notch PHP programmers.

The book covers such useful topics as

• Detailed information on the basics of the PHP language, including data types, variables, operators, and flow control statements
  
• The basics of functions, strings, arrays, and objects
  
• Common PHP web application techniques, such as form processing and validation, session tracking, and cookies
  
• Interacting with relational databases, such as MySQL and Oracle, using the database-independent PEAR DB library and the new PDO Library
  
• How to generate dynamic images, create PDF files, and parse XML files with PHP
  
• Advanced topics, such as creating secure scripts, error handling, performance tuning, and writing your own C language extensions to PHP
  
• A handy quick reference to all the core functions in PHP and all the standard extensions that ship with PHP

Rasmus Lerdorf and Kevin Tatroe provided the guidelines for this book. The newest author is Peter MacIntyre, a Zend Certified Engineer with more than five years experience in PHP. Wez Furlong and Chris Shiflett also contributed. Furlong modernized the "Extending PHP" chapter, and Shiflett brought his renowned expertise in updating the "Security" chapter.

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