Now installed on more than 20 million Internet domains around the world, PHP is the undisputed king of web programming languages. Its users cite many reasons for deployment, such as database connectivity, powerful extensions, and rich object-orientation, but nearly everyone would agree that, above all, PHP is just plain easy to use. This is the feature that continues to drive the language forward, attracting new users and enabling existing programmers to do more with their skills.
The release of PHP 5 has introduced many new features to the language, making this an exciting time for the language. Many people who had not previously considered PHP are now finding it a good fit for their needsâthe new object-orientation system is a big plus, for example. More importantly, many people who had a large investment in PHP 4 are trying to migrate their code to the new release with minimum breakage. Fortunately for all of us, it's not too hard to retain backward compatibility, and it's very easy to take advantage of the many new features.
So, welcome to PHP. I think you'll find it a fun, interesting, and flexible language that might finally disprove the old saying, "Cheap, good, on time: choose any two."
This book has been designed to be of maximum use for existing PHP developers looking for a complete, compact, and portable reference guide to the language. If this is your first time using PHP, but you have experience using similar languages such as Perl, Python, or C, then you should be able to treat the book as a learning guide.
As any PHP programmer will tell you, the online PHP manual is of a very high standard. The aim of this book is not to compete with or replace the online manual. Although this book is designed to stand alone, you will find the topic grouping, tips, and examples here complement the online guide.
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