PHP for the Web: Visual QuickStart Guide, Fourth Edition

Introduction

When I began the first edition of this book in 2000, PHP was a little-known open source project. It was adored by technical people in the know but not yet recognized as the popular choice for Web development that it is today. When I taught myself PHP, very little documentation was available on the language—and that was my motivation for writing this book in the first place.

Today things are different. The Internet has gone through a boom and a bust and has righted itself. Furthermore, PHP is now the reigning king of dynamic Web design tools and has expanded somewhat beyond the realm of just Web development. But despite PHP’s popularity and the increase in available documentation, sample code, and examples, a good book discussing ...