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Programming PHP
From the April, 2003 issue of PC Alamode Magazine
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Do
you need to add dynamic interactivity to your Web site? Or maybe database
support? Several methods are available to accomplish this, PHP is one of
the newer methods. PHP is a server scripting language first developed by
Rasmus Lerdorf in 1994. The most recent version (version 4) including abstraction
of the layer between the language and the Web server, a thread safety mechanism
and more advanced tag parsing, was released in May 2000. PHP was designed
to run in the Apache Web Server on a Unix machine, however, if you stand
on your head and spin around 3 times while chanting several esoteric spells,
you may be able to get it to install on most other server configurations.
PHP (Personal Home Page Tool) is used primarily for three purposes:
PHP can be used to write full-blown, cross-platform GUI applications. The original intent of PHP, and the task that it is still best suited for, is the generation of dynamic HTML. More recently, PHP has become more popular for generating XML documents, graphics, Flash animation and PDF files. PHP can be used to run scripts from the command-line to accomplish server administration tasks. Programming PHP by Rasmus Lerdorf and Kevin Tatroe is written from a unique prospective. Every “teach yourself programming” book that I have seen lately has started from the assumption that you already know what you are doing. With Programming PHP, a completely inexperienced beginner can understand the concepts and be writing functioning applications quickly. On the other hand, the experienced programmer can use this book as a reference manual to fine tune her or his skills. Considering that co-author Rasmus Lerdorf is the original developer of PHP, you can feel confident that Programming PHP reflects how PHP was designed to be used. The code samples are short and concise and do not distract from the content of the topic being discussed. Some of the code samples do not work and I’m not sure that this is not intentional, as they can be used as a self-test of the concepts of the chapter. Fixing the code is fairly simple if you understand the topic being covered. Some of the topics were a little over my head because of my less-than-thorough
understanding of Unix. Nevertheless, I think Programming PHP would
be a valuable addition to any Web developer’s library.
Programming PHP |
Alamo PC Organization, Inc.
San Antonio, TX USA