It certainly took its time, but now it's out: a PHP book from the famous “Programming” series by O'Reilly. O'Reilly has a tradition of letting only creators or core developers of a language write books for this series. With “Programming PHP” Rasmus Lerdorf, the creator of PHP, presents his second book on PHP, the first being the “PHP Pocket Reference” that was also published by O'Reilly.

“Programming PHP” gives a thorough overview of PHP and explains in its first six chapters the handling of datatypes and variables, arrays, strings and objects in great detail. Following an interlude on essential web technologies including HTTP and SSL in chapter seven, the following four chapters show how PHP integrates with other technologies like databases, graphics, PDF and XML. Chapter 12 is dedicated to the planning and development of secure web applications while chapter 13 presents proven solutions for common problems. Rasmus Lerdorf uses the 14th chapter, “Extending PHP”, to give a practical introduction into writing extensions for PHP in C. This chapter is certainly not aimed at beginners, like the rest of the book. The book concludes with a chapter on Windows specific topics like COM and ODBC and a 100-page long function reference.

From the great number of PHP books that target beginners, “Programming PHP” clearly stands out as the best. The numerous examples consistently honour the change in the handling of external variables, like HTTP GET and POST, that was introduced in PHP 4.2.0 which motivates programming securer PHP applications. If one does not yet own an introductionary PHP book and is considering buying one, she/he should get “Programming PHP” as it gives a well-written introduction without legacy code in its examples.

Reviewed by: Sebastian Bergmann