Core PHP Programming - 3rd Edition by Leon Atkinson with Zeev Suraski
Published by: Prentice Hall.

This book has been fully revised for PHP5. My opinion has changed slightly from the 1st edition, although the book pretty much follows the same layout. My opinion differs in that I would no longer recommend this book for a beginning programmer. Although, it appears as though both "Core PHP" and "Core MySQL" are very popular amongst beginning programmers, so that opinion you'd best judge for yourself. Personally, I think this book is best suited for those either current familiar with the concepts of programming and are looking to migrate to PHP, or for any current PHP programmer that wants to familiarize themself with the new features of PHP5. Those who only know PHP will also discover a whole new world behind OOP.

The 1st 1/3rd chunk of this book I found to be extremely exciting (this is the chunk that covers most of the new php5 features and updates). From new functions, to streams, to the new object model. Yeah, I had to wipe drool from my mouth a couple of times. The very end of the book has some interesting topics from a software engineering point of view such as design patterns, and everything inbetween is pretty much just a lengthy reference which gives a good idea of the endless amount of capabilities available. The examples, where provided, are short and to the point. Recognition of the contributers to PHP, as well as links to further education are plentiful.

Leon and I go way back, well.. sort of. Overall this book is definately worth checking out, it's much better than any on-line documentation covering PHP5 that I've come across. I almost want to refuse programming all-together until PHP5 is released, it's simply amazing.... *slurp* sorry =P

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