PHP6 and MySQL® 6 Bible

Appendix C. PHP for HTML Coders

This appendix contains specific advice for HTML-only jocks looking to trade up to something a little more powerful on the server side. If you already know ASP, JavaScript, or almost any real programming language, this appendix is not going to help you much.

The Good News

If you're already proficient at HTML, starting to use PHP is not a huge step. Because PHP is usually embedded in HTML, extending the functionality of static web pages with a programming language can be a very natural progression. There are plenty of reasons to believe that you can learn PHP fairly quickly, such as the following factors.

You already know HTML

Because PHP is often embedded in HTML, and because PHP generally uses HTML for display to the browser, you won't be able to see anything that your scripts are doing unless you output HTML. In fact, you can think of PHP as simply adding functionality to web pages — it can do other things, but lots of people use it mostly for form handling and dynamic page generation.

You presumably have a lot of practice debugging HTML, which is all to the good. Many errors occur within the HTML parts of scripts or during the transitions between modes, so the ability to read and write HTML with great facility is crucial.

If you're strong on the design side, as are many HTML coders, you have the ability to produce a good-looking and well-laid-out product. This skill is important for the community because a lot of early PHP developers were not exactly ...