| PHP Objects, Patterns, and Practice, Second Edition Posted by: Jordan in PHP, Object Oriented Programming, Book on Dec 04, 2008 |
I finished reading PHP Objects, Patterns, and Practice, Second Edition
by Matt Zandstra last night and started on the next book: Pro PHP Security
. I thought I would give a brief review of the book since I haven't blogged in about 2 weeks.
Firstly, I'd like to state the method in which I read technical books: on a bike! That's right, when I get home from work everyday (and in the mornings on weekends) I ride a stationary bike for 30 minutes. This gives me the chance to read a chapter in any book. Instead of reading novels (which I do at night) I've devoted this 30 minute period to educational books. I've been doing this everyday for sometime now and have gotten use to learning in this manner - doing two things at once. This means I don't actually try any of the code or examples in the book, however, I understand the code and concepts well enough that I can determine the output by reading the code (in most cases). I did spot some minor coding flaws in the book and a couple of misspelled words but this in no way degrades the value of this book.
Length
Enough! On to the review! The book is well written, easy to follow along and holds your attention. The chapters are short enough that you can read them in one session (30 minutes for me) but long enough to contain enough information on the subject at hand. Anytime I find a technical book that drones on and on for 50 or mores pages in one chapter often causes me to break the chapter into multiple sessions which cause me to forget information learned in the previous/first session.
Content
As you can guess from the title of the book, the focus of the book is on Object Oriented Programming in PHP5. While reading technical books it is easy to determine (if you know the subject at hand already) if the author really knows what he is talking about or not. Mr. Zandstra seems to have a very solid knowledge on PHP development (along with Java development) and apparently works as a PHP developer (as he mentioned several times in his book). He shares insight that a person generally only obtains while working with other coders in the field which is very helpful in any book.
When it comes to design patterns there are two books referenced many times: Gang of Four (GoF) and Java Enterprise Patterns. In most (if not all) of the other PHP books that mentioned design patterns that I have read, GoF was referenced at least once so this is no surprise.
Conclusion
I liked the book. I wouldn't give it 5 out of 5 but I would give it 4.9 out of 5. The reason? I didn't learn anything new in this book that I hadn't already learned from another book. While this is unfair (if I had read this book before any other it would all be new) I still have to say there is no "new" information here for me.
I recommend this book to any PHP developer looking to advance their knowledge or learn advanced topics about OOP in PHP. Or, perhaps, just for a well written, good read while riding their bike!
by Matt Zandstra last night and started on the next book: Pro PHP Security. I thought I would give a brief review of the book since I haven't blogged in about 2 weeks.Firstly, I'd like to state the method in which I read technical books: on a bike! That's right, when I get home from work everyday (and in the mornings on weekends) I ride a stationary bike for 30 minutes. This gives me the chance to read a chapter in any book. Instead of reading novels (which I do at night) I've devoted this 30 minute period to educational books. I've been doing this everyday for sometime now and have gotten use to learning in this manner - doing two things at once. This means I don't actually try any of the code or examples in the book, however, I understand the code and concepts well enough that I can determine the output by reading the code (in most cases). I did spot some minor coding flaws in the book and a couple of misspelled words but this in no way degrades the value of this book.
Length
Enough! On to the review! The book is well written, easy to follow along and holds your attention. The chapters are short enough that you can read them in one session (30 minutes for me) but long enough to contain enough information on the subject at hand. Anytime I find a technical book that drones on and on for 50 or mores pages in one chapter often causes me to break the chapter into multiple sessions which cause me to forget information learned in the previous/first session.
Content
As you can guess from the title of the book, the focus of the book is on Object Oriented Programming in PHP5. While reading technical books it is easy to determine (if you know the subject at hand already) if the author really knows what he is talking about or not. Mr. Zandstra seems to have a very solid knowledge on PHP development (along with Java development) and apparently works as a PHP developer (as he mentioned several times in his book). He shares insight that a person generally only obtains while working with other coders in the field which is very helpful in any book.
When it comes to design patterns there are two books referenced many times: Gang of Four (GoF) and Java Enterprise Patterns. In most (if not all) of the other PHP books that mentioned design patterns that I have read, GoF was referenced at least once so this is no surprise.
Conclusion
I liked the book. I wouldn't give it 5 out of 5 but I would give it 4.9 out of 5. The reason? I didn't learn anything new in this book that I hadn't already learned from another book. While this is unfair (if I had read this book before any other it would all be new) I still have to say there is no "new" information here for me.
I recommend this book to any PHP developer looking to advance their knowledge or learn advanced topics about OOP in PHP. Or, perhaps, just for a well written, good read while riding their bike!
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