

Question: Quality Books/Tutorials for PHP - JSnow

Hello everyone;<p>I just got a job. Actually, I just got my first job, that I'm actually interested in, (I'm 19 years old) assisting in the development of a [deep breath] massively-multiplayer browser-based textual game created in PHP. Fortunately my employer does not mind that I'm just learning such things as programming and is willing to fund my endeavors. Let's face it -- I'm taking university-level courses through Athabasca University -- leading to a Bachelor of Science in Computing and Information Systems-- and I have a lot of extra time on my hands (first project is a [shivers] an Access database utilizing four relational tables for a imaginary, and simplified, video rental store). So I have the time to learn and procrastinate. 
 
Now I have dabbled in PHP before as well as things like: LISP (Scheme), C (++), FreePascal, and Python; However, dabbling as fun as it is, does not provide me with the full skill-set that I likely require. What I need is a list of "must read" PHP and web site design tutorials (and books if possible). I have read quite a bit on the PHP home page as well as some stuff taken off of search engine results but I may have (and likely) missed something important.
 
So, any suggestions?
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cellis
Teach yourself PHP in 24 Hours. Sams Publishing....very comprehensive.

But, I must ask you: if you are using/learning PHP on the job, why not try
something better/more interesting off the job (like I do)? PHP was my first
web language and where I a learned lot of real world software development
strategies, but I definitely wouldn't recommend learning things the PHP way to
a beginner.

~~~
JSnow
Well at the moment my main concern is the job as there is still a good deal of
work to be done (and possibly undone) and therefore I kind of have to hit the
ground running. Now as far as off the job is concerned I'm definitely open to
suggestions. Any recommendations?

~~~
cellis
At the risk of starting yet another language vs. language war, I will share
with you some thoughts that have been rattling around in my pea-sized brain;

Actionscript 2 - fun, easy. Pre-requisite to AS3 and/or flex.

Actionscript 3 - This is by far my favorite language. For brevity, I will just
say that it allows me to do a great many things, in a scripting/interactive
environment that allows me to work on 'fun' stuff (such as Papervision 3D).

C# - Pound for pound,vs the compiled langs Java, C++ and C just don't stack up
to it (jvm sucks, C++ is very confusing, and C, well just leave that to the
experts as pg says). Depending on what you are doing it is only marginally
slower than C++, but you (I) can develop ~3 times faster. YMMV.

~~~
JSnow
Ha ha. I've found C to be easier to understand then the plus-plus version; but
then, I have not gone that far with it. I'll definitely give up some time with
the C's and Actionsript in the future however. Thanks for the advice.

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noelchurchill
I have found "PHP Solutions: Dynamic Web Design Made Easy" to be an excellent
learning book. It covers all the usual things you'd want to build in a web
app.

