1. PHP Functions - Essential Reference, Published by New Riders, Authors: Zak Greant, Graeme Merrall, Torben Wilson, Brett Michlitsch.
   This is the most useful PHP book I own. This book is so useful it's never on my bookshelf. It's always laying on the floor next to my computer chair for easy reference. 🤣

2. PHP and MySQL Web Development, Published by SAMS.
   This is the least useful PHP book I own. It's not terrible, but it's not great. I don't recommend it.

3. PHP Advanced for the World Wide Web, Visual Quickpro Guide, Published by Peachpit Press, By: Larry Ullman
   This is another useful PHP book. This one has a few good advanced programming tips and tricks.

Most useful books I own:

1. Active Server Pages 3 - sybex
2. Database Programming - Sybex
3. Javascript Bible - Hungry Minds
4. HTML and XHTML - Sams
5. PHP - Sams
6. Direct 3D programming - Sams
7. DirectX programming - Sams

Have just acquired a C# book so will let you know how it is 😉

Have to agree with gsv, my books don't have a home - all over the place, and my desk is in front of the keyboard everywhere! Ease of access I guess.

Some PHP Editors have come up in conversation recently, so I thought I would collect some of the links here. The descriptions in quotes come from the associated websites. I have not tried all of these and am not endorsing any of them. I believe these are all Windows programs. Feel free to add others to this thread.

Dev-PHP IDE

Dev-PHP is a full-featured Integrated Development Environment for PHP. It's fast, powerful and has a user-friendly interface. It has many cool features, like Function browsing and full integration with the PHP parser and the PHP-GTK library."

PHPEdit

The licensing is a bit unclear on this one. It appears to be a free evaluation download if you register at their site.

PHP Coder

PHP Coder is an IDE (Integrated Development Environment) especially developed for PHP programmers. Features are Full Integration of the PHP Interpreter and the PHP documentation, Integrated Preview window, Full Syntax Highlighting for HTML and PHP, AutoComplete for frequently used text constructs, Project manager, Tag Buttons and all the standard editing functions like almost unlimited undo, copy and paste, searching, ... And it is quite small compared to other language's IDEs and loads pretty fast. And the best, it's FREE.

Template Tamer

TemplateTamer is a tool for creating and maintaining template-based dynamic PHP web applications, with code clearly and completely separate from the HTML design. As such it is a great tool for complex dynamic sites, especially where Designers and Programmers work together on the creation of the site (Free and Development versions)

Crimson Editor

Crimson Editor is a professional source editor for Windows. Syntax Highlighting for HTML, C/C++, Perl, Java, Matlab, and LaTeX. Also, it can be extended to other programming languages based on custom syntax files. (It has syntax highlighting for PHP too)

Excellent resources and I've got one to add. I just finished writing up a PHP Tutorial for people who don't have any formal programming experience. Hope someone finds it useful.

Well, I started this thread because the "how do I get started with PHP" question was coming up a lot, but you might want to have a look at my site for info on other languages.

Most useful book I own: PHP 5 for Dummies. My comments: It's very good for all stages of web programmers from beginner to advanced.

Hey guys, I'm new at web programming and design (started last fall), but learning fast. In my library right now I have a JS textbook that I forget the name of, and PHP and MySQL For Dynamic Websites: Visual Quickpro Guide by Larry Ullman. The latter of the two is a solid beginner's book, but I am interested in learning much more advanced PHP and MySQL.

Another resource I feel I might need is some general references on all facets of creating websites. For example, I couldn't tell you a damn thing about servers (setting them up, remote access), the whole DOCTYPE thing, I don't even know. I find out something new every day. I feel like a book explaining the general ins and outs of being a web developer would help me a lot.

I am also interested in a good beginner/intermediate Flash book, an advanced Photoshop guide, and perhaps a good book on SEO. I know there are lots of resources listed here, but it's tough to figure out among 50 book descriptions which one is the best for your skill level.

umm, clicking that downloads link appears to take me right back to the very same page...am I doing something really stupid I should kick myself for? I tried allowing the site for popups....Thats not it...

For those of you wanting to learn PHP 5 and really apply its object oriented features, a good book that I got (which a friend recommended) is Matt Zandstra's PHP 5 Objects, Patterns, and Practice. I'm seriously impressed with this book, its very object oriented and explains a lot of concepts very well. It also has side notes that explain differences between coding certain examples for PHP 4 and for PHP 5.

As good as the book is, it would be more useful if you had some object oriented programming knowledge, but its not essential. It would also be good if you have a good grasp of PHP programming, this isnt a beginner's book. If you've ever marvelled at the coding behind phpbb, you'll understand that much much better after reading the first couple of chapters.

Definitely a good read for serious programmers and its concepts apply to a wide range of OOP languages (Java, C, C++...). I was telling my friend that the first 6 chapters covered my first 2 years of university!

SAMS Teach Yourself PHP in 10 minutes, covers PHP 5.0, 235pages, of around 25, 10-minute lessons, I also have Teach Yourself CSS in 10 minutes too, these are great books if you lack an attention span, it only takes 10 mins per chapter, and all the information is very well written, and to the point! Great books if you hate the 2000-page monsters as I do! and they're all under $15 too!

I learned the basics on school later on I used W3school and PHP dot net. When I wanted to make something I studied first some (so not one) tutorials to look at their approach. My first scripts I shared on forums so I could receive some quality feedback.

The best application I have come across so far is PHP Designer. It's seriously cool!