Pastor Tim Hall

At our Sunday service, Pastor Tim Hall preached. Ps Simon is still unwell and we do not know when he will be back. Also, a saw a few old faces at church this morning who I haven't seen for a while.

I also drove to church in my own car for the first time. Cool morning all round.

My new (used) car finally arrives.

My car finally arrived from Sydney today. I had just got back from downtown when the car arrived. It was good timing. The car belonged to my mother but as she was no longer driving, she gave it to me.

Great to finally have it. I was so happy that I did not go to the gym today. I drove it around for a while to get used to it. Feels great. I still have to get it registered in Victoria as well as get my own insurance.

Murach's PHP and MySql - my book review

The following is a book review of Murach's PHP and MySql. This is a computer programming book that deals with web site development using the PHP scripting language and the MySQL database.

Please tell me what you think about the following review.

MURACHS PHP and MySQL

2^nd Edition

My book review.

I have just been reading through this book, studying it, trying the examples that were provided and I am sorry to have to report that I had to give up after chapter 7. I simply found this book too hard to follow. Let me point out that I am NOT a beginner to computer programing or web site development. I have developed web sites in the past using ASP and Coldfusion. I do understand HTML and CSS and I work with databases, so I do have a certain expertise in software development.

On your back cover of the book it states; “Begin with a quick start course that will have you developing your first database driven web applications in record time.” Herein lies the problem.

The author’s simply go too fast!

Why the rush? In my experience you need to learn to walk before you can run. Trying to go too quickly has one big disadvantage – too much gets left out and I am afraid this is the case with this book.

Book intro

Just who is this book for? The author’s should have included that the user have some programming experience. PHP uses a C like syntax that is confusing for novices. Is this book for beginners or someone with intermediate skills?

Chapter 1

The architecture of a web application was well explained!

Using 2 adjoining pages to explain the same process was interesting! There were certain things I did like about this book!

Page 20 – explain “Escaped”. It is mentioned it but no explanation is given for what it is.

I think that Chapter 1 contained too much information for a novice user. Did we really have to be concerned with NetBeans in Chapter 1.

Chapter 2

Basic PHP Skills

Is this the best was to introduce PHP. The author’s write a lot but don’t give simple examples.

Some things were well explained such as the fact that $_GET is a super global, as well as the difference between GET and POST. I was glad that the author’s explained why it is good practice to use single quotes, not double, for strings.

Page 64 – what is an XSS attack? The author’s don’t explain what this is? I am beginning at this point to wonder if they are simply assuming pre knowledge on the part of the learner which is most likely not there!

Page 72 – How to code control statements.

I do think an explanation of control structures are would be useful.

I am glad that the author’s did explain the difference between the assignment operator (=), the equality operator (==) and the identity operator (===). I was not aware of that.

Finishing Chapter 2

I have to say that as far as introducing a new user to PHP, chapter 2 was rather brief. A newcomer would be totally lost. You need to throw in basic examples people can follow. For example you say nothing about “Echo”.

Chapter 3

Introduction to relational databases and MySQL

The author’s did not explain what a relational database is as against a flat file database.

I just get a feeling that you move too quickly through this chapter.

Page 108 – The author’s talk about Referential Integrity and Transaction processing but don’t explain what they are. Again, if I were a novice user I would be totally lost right now!

Chapter 4

They write about creating objects from classes, but you do not explain what objects or classes are!

The author’s do not explain what methods or arrays are! Again you are going too fast.

The whole of the chapter was hard to follow.

Chapter 5

The Model View Controller Pattern.

This chapter was generally well explained. I had not understood what MVC was.

Chapter 6

I did not even bother with Chapter 6!

Chapter 7

How to work with form data.

Once again, the same problems are reoccurring. The author’s are talking a lot about stuff but not giving the user simple examples that they can follow.

At this point I gave up as I felt that I was not really leaning anything. Please slow things down a bit. Give the learner some time to get used to this stuff. Some things you simply cannot fast track. Leaning web site development is one of them.

I hope this review was not too negative! There were things I liked about this book but I do feel that on the whole you were simply going too fast for my liking. A complete novice would be swamped.

Have a nice day

Gerard Gates

A new Optus Broadband account and my car is on it's way

Today was notable for two reasons. I got my new Optus naked broadband service up and running. This will give me 30 GB data instead of the old 8 GB of my old Telstra account.

I finally got word that my car is on it's way down from Sydney. The car removalist finally picked it up today. I should receive it next week some time.