It's the way of things to not complain about something freely given, but when quality is concerned, I think I have all right to write about it. As a short introduction, I have always felt that with the mass proliferation of scripts, I'm almost compelled to learn the language that drives them. No, not Javascript; PHP, something newer, cleaner, and undeniably more powerful. At first, I tried online tutorials but I didn't get anywhere very fast. All through this, I was dissecting scripts and while I could manipulate them successfully, I could not figure out which part of it did what. It reminded me of my introductions into XHTML and CSS in that, until I was able to hold the script in my hands and assign one part to something on my screen, I could not piece it together.
But it's harder with PHP. With server-side scripts, it's difficult to simply assign a class to an item and deem the job done. Because there are so many variables necessary to make an event happen, I would have to know what each variable adds to the picture. So I asked my mom to find me a book¹ on the subject so I could indulge in some nerdiness. And let me tell you, within the first 100 pages of the book I finally got in place of the book I initially wanted², I was baffled. How did this woman get away with writing a book that has barely legible HTML?
Where the book fails
First of all, the code excerpts she writes that include HTML have very poor HTML. Not only does it not have a doctype or a charset or any semblance to even HTML 4.01 (the lowest version of HTML I personally accept), but in some instances, she doesn't even add quotations to attributes:
<input title=Wow name=no id=quotes />
I've also heard that several of her PHP examples don't work (I haven't tried many of them yet) and that attempts to contact her about errors have failed largely because her site has no mechanism for contacting her. I'm tiring out my computer simply trying to list the ways that I loathe the book...without having touched a good 4/5ths of it. I am still reading it to verify those claims and see if I can get a little PHP out of it without losing my life in the process.
Note: A common misconception about tech and development books is that they should be written using the simplest language possible. But I don't like being put to sleep. I found at least one instance of "what the heck". That strikes me as remarkably unprofessional.
Where the book succeeds
It appears to be worded very childishly. Unlike with Beginning CSS Web Development (of which I only read an excerpt), I'm not captivated by the text or the layout. It doesn't seem to be a very professional book; in fact, from the first few strings of tutorials, I assume the internet might be better; the internet with its wealth of underdeveloped and copy-cat content. I love it and hate it, and it's oh so hard to tell the difference sometimes.
Then again, the book is free. And it can't be bad if it's free, correct? I'll write a follow-up post when I finish the book. Hopefully by that time, I will be either proficient with PHP or I will be writing a similarly long posts on why free things are terrible and you should never get them because your esophagus will become forfeit.
- My mom works for a university and takes additional classes at another university; she gets free books because of the latter. Exploiting the system? Probably. «
- The university can't get every book for free (not all publishers will give free copies out); therefore, they can opt out of paying for certain books and get the free version instead, which is still cool since they don't owe me anything! «
Read 4 comments (Leave a comment?)
Gemma said:
I have been pondering myself about learning PHP and have scoured Amazon for something cheap but worth-while, which obviously you won’t know is worth-while til it’s been read, right? LOL!
Anyway, this sounds like an interesting find, specially for a beginner, I might have to check it out.
Bless you for offering to sign up to TLA for me, that’s a real cool thing to do!
Love, Gem x
Posted on December 3, 2006 9:55 AM; Permalink
Scot said:
sadly i can never understand those scripts. but i tried!
Posted on December 3, 2006 10:32 AM; Permalink
Ranjani said:
Gemma: No worries! I’m not sure if Google AdSense will work out for me, and I’ve had TLA bookmarked for at least a month. Now I have more than one reason to try it out :)
Scot: And trying is the best part! Once I know what I’m doing, I’ll probably try to create some scripts. I’m giddy!
Posted on December 3, 2006 12:53 PM; Permalink
hanmae said:
wow..reading your review makes me go blah. i really have to learn more on html, css and all those stuffs to understand better. anyway, you take care!
Posted on December 5, 2006 9:52 PM; Permalink