PHP 5: Power Programming By Andi Gutmans, Stig Saether Bakken, Derick Rethans

I first started using PHP with it was at version 3, used it through version 4 and just recently began using version 4, which is when I got this book, my first PHP reference book.

Although this book touches upon PHP basics, the explaination of methods used are not for programming beginners. A background in other programming languages if very helpful, I wouldn't recommend this book to beginners looking for a place to start.

For intermediate to advanced users, however, this book is a vital tool in secure PHP programming. Security is a serious issue with PHP, and the authors work to cover all known vulnerabilities. The section about image uploads using PHP was 5 pages long, simply to cover and provide solutions for several security problems the PHP programmer should be aware of. The section to "make scripts safe" was helpful in the same way, getting further into authenticating user input before accepting it.

I also have the sections about using PHP with XML and database interaction bookmarked, as they are both things I use PHP with. Chapter 9: Mainstreem Extensions was very good, talking about accessing files and streams, regular expressions, date handling and graphics manipulation.

A very good book for PHP developers looking for secuire development solutions. Bravo!

Programming the Perl DBI, by Alligator Descartes, Tim Bunce, Linda Mui (Editor)

I started using Perl with databases a couple years back with a small project. I was discouraged to realize that the only documentation I could find was in the perl docs themselves, which were as dry as most docs, and sometimes as hard to read as your average man page. I knew this book existed, but held off getting a copy and struggled through beginning to learn Perl DBI.

When I did aquire this book, I knew the basics. I was able to flip through the first bits of the book and was pleased with how it was laid out. It had all the wealth of information that the perl docs had, but was less confusing to me. And it was a book I could hold and scribble notes in, something I was unable to do with the perl docs (I don't have the resources to print them all out, afterall.

I would recommend that the reader has a fairly solid base in Perl before picking up this book, as they don't spend time on the Perl Basics (I suggest O'Reilly's Programming Perl and Learning Perl for this). But other than that, as far as I'm concerned it's the best Perl DBI book on the market.

The CSS Anthology: 101 Essential Tips, Tricks and Hacks, By Rachel Andrew

I've been writing websites in HTML since 1998, and using basic CSS since I discovered it's usefulness in late 1999. Until I received this book I had learned everything I knew about CSS from internet resources. As CSS grew in popularity I realized that a book that was complete and carefully laid out would be a great help to me. This book fit that need.

The first chapter answers "Why CSS?" The second reviewed the basics of CSS, which I was quite familiar with, but which would be a great help to someone who is familiar with HTML and just getting into CSS.

The rest of the book was helpful to me, as an experienced web developer. It gets into images, navigation, the proper use of tables, forms and layout using divs. When making my most recent site I had this book at my side the whole time.

Best of all, there are notes throughout the book detailing what CSS techniques work with different web browsers on different OSes (Windows, Mac and Linux), and how to get your site to work in all of them. The book even devotes an entire chapter to this.

This book also has plenty of relavent, real-world exampes that I found very helpful.

I'd recommend this book to anyone who wants an up to date (published in Nov/Dec of 2004) reference for CSS.