Advanced PHP Programming

Introduction

This book strives to make you an expert PHP programmer. Being an expert programmer does not mean being fully versed in the syntax and features of a language (although that helps); instead, it means that you can effectively use the language to solve problems. When you have finished reading this book, you should have a solid understanding of PHP’s strengths and weaknesses, as well as the best ways to use it to tackle problems both inside and outside the Web domain.

This book aims to be idea focused, describing general problems and using specific examples to illustrate—as opposed to a cookbook method, where both the problems and solutions are usually highly specific. As the proverb says: “Give a man a fish, he eats for a day. Teach him ...