I want to learn a new book on PHP to catch up on some of the changes.

I saw a book on Amazon called - PHP 6 and MySQL 5 for Dynamic Web Sites.
My server uses php5 and i'm guessing they're going to be using php5 for some time yet.

Would I be able to use the code learnt from such a book on my server?

PHP 6 has never been released, so I don't know what that book is trying to teach.

Originally Posted by wayfarer07

PHP 6 has never been released, so I don't know what that book is trying to teach.

Actually PHP6 is currently in development and most of the changes have already been documented.

PHP 6 and MySQL 5 for Dynamic Web Sites - Good book, I learnt from PHP 4 and MySQL 4 for Dynamic Web Sites. It's a cook book and it's the best one out there.

Most web hosts will not upgrade to PHP6 until about 3 months after it's out (to iron out all the bugs). I suggest you wait for it to become more main stream...or just google "changes to php6"

I know its under development, and it has been since about 2005, but the speculation I've read says that it will take hosts a LOT longer than 3 months to upgrade.

it took my host almost a year after php 5 was released till they upgraded to it.

I guess it wouldn't hurt to start on learning php 6, but don't think that will be the only book you will ever need. That won't be the case. And also, don't be dissapointed if you don't learn much, if anything new at all, as this book is new on the market, before the scripting language php 6 has even been released, so consider this book a Beta version of the real thing.

The biggest change I'm aware of in PHP6 is the inclusion of namespaces so learning PHP5 vs PHP6 probably isn't that different. It might even be more appropriate at this point to start with PHP6 considering features that I don't think anyone should be using to begin with will be removed (magic quotes, register globals).

For anyone concerned with their php5 code not working in php6 watch at for short tags ( <% ) and ereg, both are being removed (to the best of my knowledge)

I had thought, perhaps mistakenly, that the namespaces were being introduced in 5.3. What I would love is a consistent naming schema for functions.

What I would love is a consistent naming schema for functions.

You mean you would like it to look like it hasn't been written by a committee?

Originally Posted by VirtuosiMedia

I had thought, perhaps mistakenly, that the namespaces were being introduced in 5.3. What I would love is a consistent naming schema for functions.

I checked PHP.net and that's true. Every list of PHP6 changes I've seen however, cites namespaces as one of them. According to wikipedia 5.3 will include first-order functions, closures, and anonymous functions

Originally Posted by chrishirst

You mean you would like it to look like it hasn't been written by a committee?

Developer 1: We shouldn't use any separators when naming our functions.
Developer 2: We should use underscores to name our functions.
Developer 3: We should use Hebrew for our error reporting.
Developer 4: We should use English for our error reporting.
Developer 5: Register globals is a good thing.
Developer 6: Register globals is a bad thing.
Developer 7: Input should be escaped automagically.
Developer 8: Input shouldn't be escaped automagically.

Committee: You're right...

Well if you go on Amazon type PHP under books and then sort them by newest publication date, The first 20-25 are about PHP 6. For some reason there are no new books out for php 5. (going back over a year, just php 6).

The book I mentioned in my first post on this thread has lots of good reviews so i'll probably get that one. Thanks for all the feed back.

Well the concepts being introduced in PHP6 are not a secret, and all of them are features that are already implimented in other languages so I don't see any reason why you would write a book about PHP5 when PHP6 will be out soon enough.

Just don't plan on using those features until PHP6 is out, and if you are trying to put together a portable app don't plan on using them even after it is out (unless you want to code two versions).