Co-written by the guy who invented PHP (Rasmus Lerdorf,) this is a must-buy book for anyone getting into PHP or web programming in general.

What can I say; this book is so well written and to the point, that I found that the information seemed to just flow from the pages.

Who is this book for?

This is not a book for someone just learning how to program; it is for everyone else though.

Both programmers new to PHP, or PHP programmers with (at least) a basic understanding of PHP, will find this book to be very handy to have around.

The book does not try to cover everything about PHP… though it does cover things like:

• graphics
• xml
• pdf
• databases

… instead it gives the best coverage of the core language I’ve ever read.

Buy the book.

A small book that takes a critical look at Java and other languages (Ruby, PHP, ) at a moment in time.

I say ‘at a moment in time’ because this book will lose relevance very quickly – even more quickly than the typical nerd book.

In a nutshell:

• You get a brief history lesson on languages and their problems.
• You get a perspective of the problems that Java developers face.
• You get perspective on the subject from interviews with several big-wig names in the field.
• You get an overview of Ruby and Rails.

My complaints:

• The author likes to introduce his chapters with kayaking stories that are suppose to reflect what he is about to talk about … I would just skip those parts because I am not into kayaking.
• Question of accuracy: he mentions (page 174) that PHP does not have enough structure. This is a silly statement given that there are SEVERAL PHP frameworks out there that provide the exact same structure as Rails – some even copy Rails.

Conclusion:

I liked the book and it was a worthwhile read. It has a few problems but it does open your eyes to things.

That said, the title of the book should have been: ‘Beyond Java and why I love Ruby’.

Ruby For Rails connects the dots between Ruby and Rails.

In a nutshell:

This book looks at how Rails uses Ruby, and in so doing, you learn a heck of a lot about Ruby programming.

Ruby For Rails goes into detail about basic Ruby, enough so that I think someone new to Ruby, could learn enough about the language to be able to build web applications. But, the book is not a comprehensive Ruby reference – there are things that are not talked about.

The thing I really liked about the book, is the way the author introduces a concept and then shows you how Ruby or Rails implements that concept in a practical application.

For example:

You are introduced to a Ruby construct called a ‘module’*.

• You learn what a module is.
• Why Ruby has modules.
• How Rails uses modules and why.

I am glad to have this book and think anyone interested in learning Ruby and /or Rails, should get it.

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* Ruby modules are programmatic constructs that are like classes (they have methods and constants,) but they are not directly instantiated like a true class.

Instead, modules are created to be inserted into to classes or objects to give the host class or object the extra functionality. Often modules are referred to as ‘mix-ins’ because modules are mixed in to classes.

by: Kevin Tate

Review by Richard Mischook

This book will of some interest to anyone who has ever worked on a team developing any sort of sophisticated software. By sophisticated I mean relatively feature-rich and developed with the expectation of a reasonably long shelf life. By the latter though, I don’t mean a static shelf life; rather a dynamic one where it is expected that the software will need to grow and change in response to the evolving needs of the customer.

Getting to the Point

Sustainable Software Development starts with a strong argument as to why building software cannot and should not be viewed as analogous to building buildings, despite the propensity of many to see things that way. For one thing buildings are not expected to change over time in response to changing requirements (not drastically anyway).

Software on the other hand in an increasingly dynamic business climate must be adaptable to change. In fact change must be relatively easy to accomplish with a low risk of breaking existing functionality. Thus sustainable software development is somewhat different from purely agile development, even if the former borrows heavily from the principles of the latter. Sustainable software must develop the software that the customer needs, and be capable of changing as the needs of the customer change.

The Core of the Book

This book is a great read. It uses numerous small examples to illustrate its point, examples that certainly were quite familiar to me. The causes of unsustainable development were covered in some detail. The meat of the book went into a series of practical and unambiguous practices and principles designed to foster long term sustainable development. In addition to discussing software methodology, the author recognizes the cultural issues (as in corporate culture) that need to be addressed to foster a sustainable software development environment.

Synopsis

This book is a great read even for those who may already be familiar with one of more schools of agile development. It left me charged up and wanting to rush into the office and put these ideas into practice. Highly recommended.

Head Rush AJAX targets web designers who have a basic understanding of JavaScript.

A couple of points:

• A great book for beginners.
• This book is not well suited for experienced Web programmers because the pace is probably too slow.

Using clever layouts and graphics, along with an easy to understand writing style, Head Rush AJAX makes AJAX very approachable for web designers.

WHAT IS AJAX

AJAX is essentially the combination of technologies (JavaScript, DOM, CSS) built into all modern browsers that allows you to create web apps that act like (from the users perspective,) desktop applications – the so-called ‘rich user experience’. AJAX is used to send data to and from the server, and then display it in a web page, in a seamless way.

AJAX is typically coupled with a server-side technology like:

• PHP
• ASP.net
• Java/J2EE

The server-side languages/environments are used to grab data (say from a database like MySQL) and then hand it off the to AJAX scripts. Wisely, Head Rush AJAX uses PHP as the server-side language to play this role*.

HOW THE BOOK TACKLES AJAX

By starting with simple concepts and examples, the book gently takes the reader from humble beginnings to (by the end of the book) where the reader should be comfortable creating AJAX based websites.

Some highlights:

• Great examination of basic concepts.
• Good tutorial on DOM scripting – a key component of AJAX
• Nice comparison between AJAX with XML vs. AJAX with JSON – a lightweight JavaScript data format

Probably the best web designer centric book on AJAX.

Stefan Mischook (Web Design Heretic)