1.4     How to use this book

This is NOT the latest copy of this book; click here for the latest version.

If you are new to web development, I suggest you trust my plan and read the first section from start to finish, then move around as you want to learn. The topics in this book have been ordered in such a way as to allow newcomers to progress smoothly and quickly in their learning without having to worry about taking notes in the margin or copying thousands of lines of code.

All code in the book is shown in a fixed-width font. Sometimes I use "...[snip]..." to show that what you see is only a portion of the code from that page.

Particular chapters of interest will vary for each reader, but I strongly recommend you read as much of the Databases chapter as you can, as I think nearly every PHP developer can learn from the information contained there. Also of interest to all is the Performance chapter, where I look at how to optimise your PHP site at every level.

For the benefit of the less jargon-inclined, I have included a comprehensive glossary towards the back of the book. It has often been said that the root of misunderstanding a topic when reading lies in the reader skipping past a word they did not fully understand - do not let yourself succumb to this problem!

Finally, note that at key places in the book, I ask you to try something for yourself. Now I know that when I read some books that say, "Now copy the following hundred lines of code into your editor", I shy away towards the next chapter barely without a thought. In order to make your learning as painless as possible, I only ask you to try particular things when it is necessary in order to ensure you have understood what has been said. However, that is not to say you should not be writing as much PHP as possible. Here is a simple saying that you would be wise to remember:

Little programming, little power;

Some programming, some power;

Much programming, much power!

Simple, but I hope it gets the point across.