Programming PHP, 2nd Edition, is the authoritative guide to PHP 5 and is filled with the unique knowledge of the creator of PHP (Rasmus Lerdorf) and other PHP experts. When it comes to creating websites, the PHP scripting language is truly a red-hot property. In fact, PHP is currently used on more than 19 million websites, surpassing Microsoft's ASP .NET technology in popularity. Programmers love its flexibility and speed; designers love its accessibility and convenience. As the industry standard book on PHP, all of the essentials are covered in a clear and concise manner. Language syntax and programming techniques are coupled with numerous examples that illustrate both correct usage and common idioms. With style tips and practical programming advice, this book will help you become not just a PHP programmer, but a good PHP programmer. Programming PHP, Second Edition covers everything you need to know to create effective web applications with PHP. Contents include: * Detailed information on the basics of the PHP language, including data types, variables, operators, and flow control statements * Chapters outlining the basics of functions, strings, arrays, and objects * Coverage of common PHP web application techniques, such as form processing and validation, session tracking, and cookies * Material on interacting with relational databases, such as MySQL and Oracle, using the database-independent PEAR DB library and the new PDO Library * Chapters that show you how to generate dynamic images, create PDF files, and parse XML files with PHP * Advanced topics, such as creating secure scripts, error handling, performance tuning, and writing your own C language extensions to PHP * A handy quick reference to all the core functions in PHP and all the standard extensions that ship with PHP Praise for the first edition: "If you are just getting into the dynamic Web development world or you are considering migrating from another dynamic web product to PHP, Programming PHP is the book of choice to get you up, running, and productive in a short time." --Peter MacIntrye, eWeek "I think this is a great book for programmers who want to start developing dynamic websites with PHP. It gives a detailed overview of PHP, lots of valuable tips, and a good sense of PHP's strengths." --David Dooling, Slashdot.org

Rasmus Lerdorf

Rasmus Lerdorf于1995年启动了PHP项目，并从那以后一直为PHP的发展而努力。Rasmus是Apache的长期贡献者，也是Apache基金会的成员，他曾参与了PHP之外的很多其他的开源项目。Rasmus是PHP Pocket Reference第一版的作者和Programming PHP第一版的作者之一，这两本书都由O'Reilly公司出版。

Rasmus Lerdorf于1968年生于格陵兰岛西部迪科斯岛上的Godhavn/Qeqertarsuaq。他从1985年开始涉足Unix解决方案。Rasmus主要以其1995年开始负责的PHP项目而闻名，另外他还由于在mSQL 1.x中使用ANSI-92 SQL不接受的LIMIT子句而备受指责，而现在该子句至少在概念上已经被MySQL和PostgreSQL所接受。

Rasmus试图拒绝程序员的称呼，而宁愿被视为一位擅长解决问题的技术专家。如果解决问题需要一点编码，他绝不会让其他人代劳，而喜欢自行解决。Rasmus目前和他的妻子Christine居住在旧金山附近。

Kevin Tatroe

Kevin Tatroe已经做了十年Macintosh和Unix程序员，他也是一个经验丰富的PHP程序员，对于PHP5中的新变化非常熟悉。他也是Programming PHP第一版的作者之一。

Kevin Tatroe曾经做了十年的Macintosh和Unix程序员。也许是由于懒散的缘故吧，他被可自动完成很多工作的语言和框架吸引了，如AppleScript、Perl和PHP语言，还有WebObjects和Cocoa编程环境。

目前，Kevin和他的妻子Jenn、儿子Hadden，还有他们的两只猫住在科罗拉多州的乡村大平原边缘，那里离大山很远，不必担心糟糕的降雪，也不用担心龙卷风。他们的房子里到处都是LEGO拼装玩具、运动图片和众多其他玩具。

Peter MacIntyre

Peter MacIntyre生活和工作在夏洛特顿(加拿大爱德华王子岛的首府)，他有十六年的IT业工作经验，主要领域为软件开发。Peter拥有的技术技能包括多种客户端/服务端工具和关系型数据库，如PHP、PowerBuilder、Visual Basic、Active Server Pages和CA-Visual Objects。他获得了Zend公司的PHP4认证，并参与了多本书籍的写作：Using Visual Objects(Que公司出版)、Using PowerBuilder 5（Que公司出版）、ASP.NET Bible（Wiley出版）和Web Warrior Survey on Web Development Languages（Course Technology公司出版）。Peter同时也是PHP杂志php|architect (http://www.phparch.com)的编辑和作者（包括在线版和纸版杂志）。他也常在各种计算机会议上作报告，包括在新奥尔良召开的CA-World、德国科隆召开的CA-TechniCon和澳大利亚墨尔本召开的CA-Expo。