Murach's PHP and MySQL (Murach: Training and Reference) at Dominant Systems Book Store

I am a self-taught developer, and my bookshelf is a sea of royal blue Murach texts. Nothing comes close to them for clear explanations and excellent real-world demos. --Phil Holbrook, IT Manager

Customer Reviews & Comments
I've now read 3 of the Murach's titles - Java 6, Servlets and JSP, and now PHP and MySQL, and I've loved each one. I have to say I love the Murach's style and organization, along with the clear, easy to understand writing. The organization of having descriptive text on the left side of the seam, and code samples and bullet points on the right side is perfect for both the newbie and the experienced alike, both as a step by step tutorial, and as a very convenient reference for professionals. As for this particular title, we have a programming language that is pretty easy (PHP), and we also have an overall web platform and database. So the book has to explain general web programming and the difference between client side programming and server side programming, and the http messages that go between the two. And it has to explain database programming and in particular, MySQL, and then how PHP interacts with it. Finally, the book has to explain Apache and what it does as a web server. Then, the book has to tie it all together as a comprehensive whole, presenting it as an overall platform, and explain how to set up a development environment (nice choice in using XAMPP combined with NetBeans with the PHP plugin). It does all of this with the greatest of ease and logical flow, making it exceedingly easy for the newbie and the experienced alike to get up and running quickly, and have a thorough understanding of the the overall technologies. Then, as an added bonus, and sadly missing in a lot of PHP/MySql books, is thorough coverage of the MVC design pattern, which any web application of any decent size and functionality should implement in one form or another. The book also gives good coverage of object oriented programming, something also missing in many PHP books (OOP is something that has really taken greater hold in PHP over the last 5 years or so). So, not only does the book get one up and running with PHP, Apache, and MySQL easily, quickly, and thoroughly, it also teaches and encourages solid design principles (MVC) and programming paradigms (OOP). Finally, along with all of the great organization, ease of learning, and thorough coverage of the technologies and programming practice, this book is simply a pleasure to read. Any developer/techie/geek should enjoy it. This book gets a solid 5 star rating all the way. But then again, I've come to expect this with Murach's books. I can't recommend "Murach's PHP and MySQL", as well as other Murach's titles, highly enough.

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