“Any book that calls itself a cookbook should meet a few basic
requirements. In the kitchen, a cookbook provides people (who
aren’t gourmet chefs) with detailed instructions on how to make
specific dishes. At the same time the cookbook can’t assume you’re
an idiot. You have to know how to use a knife, pans, etc. in a
basic way so that the explanations of new ways to use the tools
will make sense.”
“This book uses that exact approach. Many of the entries would
seem obvious to a seasoned programmer who is switching over to PHP
from some other procedural language. At the same time, it assumes
you have a functioning PHP environment and that you have a grasp of
the basics of the language. Each entry solves a specific
programming problem in one or more ways. When more than one way is
presented, the authors also provide reasons a programmer might
choose one over the other. This problem-solving orientation helps
out programmers who know what they need to do, but don’t know what
functions to look up in the official manual.”