After all these years, I still recommend Meloni to anyone first dipping their toes in the PHP pool. Her instructions were clear and workable and much that I learned from her I still use. She applied everything she taught, and summarized the code at chapter ends so you could see it all together. --Dan 2008

This was a rather short book. 472 pages but the fonts and diagrams were huge. I read it in three days. What this book covered was the basics of PHP, good for any beginners wanting to learn PHP with no prior programming experience (With the exception of HTML).

There was no case assigments or anything in this book to test your knoweldge of PHP. There were a few, not many, but a few typo errors in some of the source code in the book, which may confuse a beginner if they are just starting out. This book covered the basics and *only* the basics of PHP web development. However, this book has a very good constructed reference of PHP functions and MySQL.

This was a rather short book. 472 pages but the fonts and diagrams were huge. I read it in three days. What this book covered was the basics of PHP, good for any beginners wanting to learn PHP with no prior programming experience (With the exception of HTML).

There was no case assigments or anything in this book to test your knoweldge of PHP. There were a few, not many, but a few typo errors in some of the source code in the book, which may confuse a beginner if they are just starting out. This book covered the basics and *only* the basics of PHP web development. However, this book has a very good constructed reference of PHP functions and MySQL.

This book is the best PHP book I have ever read! If there is any better book for PHP on the market I will be very surprised! This book is great for beginners (ME) and probally even advanced PHP programmers! I just ordered the seconed eddition, and I'm looking foreward to reading it!

This is an extraordinarily helpful and well-written book for the person who wants to move from static web pages to data driven pages. Each step is carefully explained in detail, and each chapter builds a useful category of web page, so that you find yourself moving very quickly into doing useful work. I started out learning PHP with a different book and was bogged down with esoteric details, but when I went back to PHP with this book everything fit and everything worked. For those who do not yet have Apache, PHP and MySql on their machines, the book furnishes a CD with these programs for both Linux and Windows, along with the usual detailed explanation of how to install and configure them. At some point you will probably want to get a more advanced book to do wild and crazy things, but if you are like me, you will still find yourself coming back to this one to be sure you got it right. Great book!

This is without a doubt the best book I've ever read for PHP beginners! This books starts you out nice and easy and gets you into writing PHP and using MySQL. The book also teaches you how to create several SIMPLE PHP applications that you can integrate into your SMALL website (or expand to meet your needs). This book is NOT for intermediate/expert PHP programmers expecting to learn how to build large, complex applications! For you, I STRONGLY recommend "PHP and MySQL Web Development" by Luke Welling & Laura Thomson. Yes, this book does have some typos (many technical books do). However, if you have half a brain, you can usually get around such typos and make the code work.

I love this book.. Its really great to get started with. I only found a few misprints. I continue to refer to it. It would be nice if julie would update it with a few more tips and updated versions of apache,php,mysql. other than that for those just starting out its a perfect first step.

I love this book.. Its really great to get started with. I only found a few misprints. I continue to refer to it. It would be nice if julie would update it with a few more tips and updated versions of apache,php,mysql. other than that for those just starting out its a perfect first step.

She just let you follow her codes line by line, again and again without explanation.

She just let you follow codes line by line, again and again without explanation for what she wants her readers to follow. Plus, too many typo.

The good of this book is the step by step installation instruction for MySQL, PHP, and Apache but not good enough for commercial or professional use; just enough for work on her codes in the book.

She just let you follow her codes line by line, again and again without explanation!! Plus, too many typo.

Can't go 3 1/2 stars and 3 isn't fair, so 4 it is.

The author has done a pretty good job and uses an easy to understand colloquial style of communications that takes you through the nuts and bolts of an apache, mysql, and php install.

She completely misses on Win2K though. I wish I'd read some of the MySQL install comments here before being forced to "figure things out." There is an errata section on the website that caught a few problems but Win2K and MySQL still isn't addressed and emails to the author were left unanswered.

Solution for Win2K users.. go to the MySQL website and download the newest (non 30-day eval) version and .PDF documentation. The process of getting MySQL running as a service for WIn2K is addressed on page 100 or so.

Then... go back to the book. The examples run well and are truly instructional.

This book lives up to its title. Fast & Easy - It is a good place to start, and is quickly digested. I have rated this book at 4 for beginners, but would not recommend for more experienced programmers.