Author: Dagfinn Reiersol, Marcus Baker & Chris Shiflett Publisher: Manning, 2007 Pages: 525 ISBN: 978-1932394757 Aimed at: Experienced programmers Rating: 4 Pros: Advanced treatment of OO concepts Cons: Doesn’t introduce PHP Reviewed by: Ian Elliot
This isn’t a beginner’s book on PHP – the clue is in the subtitle “Objects, Design, Agility”. It deals with many theoretical ideas concerning object-oriented programming, design in general and patterns in particular. It doesn’t really introduce PHP from first principles and moves very rapidly through different aspects of theory to the details of serving web pages and patterns for web interfaces. To get anything at all from this book you not only have to be a reasonably competent programmer, not necessarily in PHP, but a reasonably intelligent one as It does spend time explaining and motivating all manner of modern, trendy even, programming methodologies. The ideas are mostly about objects and object-oriented philosophy but you will find mention of most other “hot” topics including, aspect-oriented design even if PHP isn’t the ideal language to express or demonstrate these ideas.
It doesn’t spoon feed with simple examples and simplified explanations – it seems to expect you to do some work to gain the reward of understanding. As long as you aren’t a beginner you can pick up PHP as you go, but in many ways PHP is just a vehicle used to explain deeper concepts. Often object-oriented ideas are introduced by comparing how PHP implements some feature as compared to Java. So it does help if you have some passing acquaintance with Java but it’s not essential. Overall the book is well written with lots of interesting asides and almost personal comments – it’s fairly easy reading. The final verdict has to reflect the fact that this is an advanced book that happens to have picked on PHP as a language to use rather than dealing with the specifics of the language. It’s a good book if you are ready and willing to read it.
Math for Programmers (Manning)
Author: Paul Orland Publisher: Manning Publications Date: January 2021 Pages: 688 ISBN: 978-1617295355 Print: 1617295353 Audience: Python developers interested in math Rating: 4 Reviewer: Mike James Of course you need to learn math, don't you?
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SQL Query Design Patterns and Best Practices
Author: Steve Hughes et al Publisher: Packt Publishing Pages: 270 ISBN: 978-1837633289 Print: 1837633282 Kindle: B0BWRD7HQ7 Audience: Query writers Rating: 2.5 Reviewer: Ian Stirk
This book aims to improve your SQL queries using design patterns, how does it fare?
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