PHP in a Nutshell - O'Reilly's Newest Release

For Immediate Release
For more information, a review copy, cover art, or an interview with
the author, contact:
Kathryn Barrett (707) 827-7094 or kathrynb@oreilly.com

The Hard Facts and More
O'Reilly Releases "PHP in a Nutshell"

Sebastopol, CA--If you ask a group of PHP programmers why they use PHP,
you'll hear a slew of answers ranging from "it's fast" to "it gives you
more than one way to do it" (always an attractive feature in a programming
language).  You'll hear other reasons for its deployment, such as database
connectivity, powerful extensions, and rich object-orientation, but, above
all, nearly everyone agrees that PHP is just plain easy to use. And if
that were not enough, there is even an official online PHP manual for
programmers to access. Although the manual is generally considered
excellent, it has its limitations, as Paul Hudson, the author of "PHP in a
Nutshell" (O'Reilly, US $29.95), points out.

"Everyone knows the official online PHP manual is of very high quality,
but its online nature limits where you can read it," Hudson explains.
"Furthermore, you often only find the 'hard facts' there rather than hints
and tips to guide you along your way and save you hours of work. Much of
the usefulness of 'PHP in a Nutshell' lies in its conciseness: PHP is a
fast language to program with, and people need a fast reference guide on
hand."

This newest "in a Nutshell" guide doesn't compete with or replace the
existing online documentation, but provides the depth and breadth that
can't be found elsewhere. The book is a complete reference to the core of
the language, as well as the most popular PHP extensions. It focuses on
the functions commonly used by a majority of developers, and eschews the
filler and extras that many manuals contain. "PHP in a Nutshell" also
provides the much-needed direction that so many programmers look for as
they try to make informed decisions about their code.

"I think PHP is now approaching the critical mass where it's no longer
clear which functions are best to use for a given task," Hudson notes.
"Choice is never a bad thing--as we've seen in Perl--but it does mean that
programmers need to spend more time researching their code before using
it. Books like 'PHP in a Nutshell' cut back all the fluff that can confuse
people and concentrate on known best practices--what works, why it works,
and how you can make it work for you."

The book details all of the latest technologies available in PHP 5, such
as SimpleXML (the fastest and easiest way to parse and work with XML in
PHP) and SQLite (an embedded database). Other topics include:
object-oriented PHP, networking, string manipulation, file manipulation,
database interaction, multimedia creation, and mathematics.

Installed on more than twenty million Internet domains around the world,
PHP is the undisputed king of web programming languages, and it's clear
that it's not going away. "PHP 5 has been hugely popular across the web,
particularly as people are increasingly using it outside of just web
scripts. The continued support from companies such as Zend, and plans to
link PHP to other server-side technologies such as Java, have combined to
provide a compelling business case for widespread enterprise deployment of
PHP," says Hudson. "That's given a big boost to the community, as there's
a whole new group of people coming to the language with fresh ideas and
fresh use cases to explore, so the whole PHP community is really abuzz
right now with new things to try."

New to the language or with years of experience, PHP developers will find
this book to be a complete, compact, and portable reference guide, and a
valuable addition to their libraries.

Additional Resources:

Chapter 16, "Manipulating Images," is available online at:
http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/phpnut/chapter/index.html

For more information about the book, including table of contents, index,
author bio, and samples, see:
http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/phpnut/

For a cover graphic in JPEG format, go to:
ftp://ftp.ora.com/pub/graphics/book_covers/hi-res/0596100...

PHP in a Nutshell
Paul Hudson
ISBN: 0-596-10067-1, 352 pages, $29.95 US, $41.95 CA
order@oreilly.com
1-800-998-9938
1-707-827-7000
http://www.oreilly.com
1005 Gravenstein Highway North
Sebastopol, CA 95472

About O'Reilly
O'Reilly Media, Inc. is the premier information source for leading-edge
computer technologies. The company's books, conferences, and web sites
bring to light the knowledge of technology innovators. O'Reilly books,
known for the animals on their covers, occupy a treasured place on the
shelves of the developers building the next generation of software.
O'Reilly conferences and summits bring alpha geeks and forward-thinking
business leaders together to shape the revolutionary ideas that spark new
industries. From the Internet to XML, open source, .NET, Java, and web
services, O'Reilly puts technologies on the map. For more information:
http://www.oreilly.com

# # #

O'Reilly is a registered trademark of O'Reilly Media, Inc. All other
trademarks are property of their respective owners.