Please tell me what you think about the following review.
MURACHS PHP and MySQL
2nd
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
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