Learning PHP, MySQL & JavaScript: With jQuery, CSS & HTML5

Let me start off with I don't seem to have a head for programming. I enjoy what I can do, but otherwise have little use for programming, except that I have classes in the topic and want to be able to program things that I don't like doing manually. With other books, I always seemed to get stuck at the questions. The answers were probably there, but by the time I'm to the questions, I am beyond frustrated. I'm usually lost and despite my trying, I give up.That didn't happen with this book. In fact, it was written in such a way that it really allowed me to learn. I found the answer to every question, and if I couldn't, I could look in the back with the answers. Before I did that though, I had my theory of what the answer was and just wanted the proof that I was right...or learn trying. I'd say that was the single biggest difference. I could look up the answers and know I would find the answers. Yeah, I might have been able to Google them, but if I don't know what I'm looking for, how do I know when I found it? Again, didn't have to worry about that with this book. In fact, I read the complete thing and walked through all of the examples and all of the questions. First time ever (which is about 8 years). Because of my total lack of frustration and the confidence this book helped instill in me, I give it five stars. I appreciate this book and I hope that if you buy it, you will too.

I was trying to get a used, newer, copy of this book. It is good, covers basics but I would prefer a newer one as technology changes quickly.

I have to say that I've been very frustrated with this book a number of times.The issue is not whether or not the author knows what he is talking about; it is very detailed and fairly easy to follow along with.I do have to preface this with saying that I skipped directly to the JavaScript section (thus skipping the PHP section that is often referred to in the JavaScript section). It is possible that his examples are better in the PHP section.My main complaint is the examples. The examples are very confusing, in my opinion.For example, when he talks about objects and classes within JavaScript, he uses an object named "details", and does not give any sort of scenario where it would help the reader understand why the object details would be created. Also, when he talks about the "this" keyword, such as this.property, he does not fully explain that the object will inherit such properties. To me, this makes it very hard to follow what he is trying to explain. If he were to have used a name, such as "john", then it would be much easier to follow when he talks about the object john having the properties of firstname, username, and password. For example, I found a YouTube video where the class User is created, and then an object (user) is created, named john. Then the example gave properties to the object john, such as lastname, firstname, and credit. In this book, an object details is created, and then the properties of forename, username, and password are created in the details object. To me, it's much easier to grasp a real world example of a user named John creating an account (and thus creating an object in the User class) than it is to talk about an arbitrary object of details and then creating arbitrary properties for it.Another example, is when he is trying to give an example of a multidimensional array in JavaScript. To try to explain this, he uses an 8x8 checkerboard, which consists of a number of spaces and 'o' letters, in order to create a nice pattern that looks very cool when printed out. However, to try to really grasp the concept of a multidimensional array, a checkerboard sucks, in my opinion. In order to really understand why you'd want to create an multidimensional array, it would be helpful to have some sort of real-world example of the need for one to begin with, and finally how to implement it in such a way as to meet that need. For example, I found a website that gave an example of needing to list activities and how many hours were spent doing those activities - that is something that is easier to grasp, in my opinion, than an 8x8 checkerboard.So, in summary, the book is good in that I'm learning how to use JavaScript (really, remembering, as I learned a number of years previously, but only from teaching myself). However, have a computer or something handy so that you can look up better examples if you really want to grasp the concepts being presented and have an idea of what they can be used for.

This is a great book, full of information on current web creation technology, covering modern usage of PHP, MySQL, JavaScript and jQuery. It serves as a good reference book, while at the same time, providing brief examples to illustrate how to use each command or function as it is presented. I found the book easy to read and understand, and the examples clear and to the point. When I first opened this book I considered myself a reasonably proficient PHP and MySQL coder, though I was using these technologies as they existed eight years ago, when I first learned them. The book opened my eyes to the newer tools that are now available as well as more modern approaches to coding, including object-oriented programming and the power of jQuery.I think this book would serve a beginning coder well, but would be even more valuable to someone who already has some experience under their belt using one or more of these technologies. This book has become my go-to book for any coding or syntax questions, and a good book to just browse through to learn a new trick or two. I recommend it without hesitation to anyone that would like to improve their programming skills in the covered topics.