Slashdot.org has a new book review of the latest publication from O'Reilly and David Sklar - Learning PHP 5.

There are more new books being published about PHP than you can shake a joystick at. PHP (along with program friends - MySQL and Apache) has become very popular among developers and web designers, and for good reason. As a programming language, it is particularly suited to web development projects, while being relatively easy to write, use and learn. More importantly, it's open-source and free, cross-platform, and widely supported. David Sklar's Learning PHP5 is one of the latest volumes dealing with PHP. It describes itself as 'a Pain-Free Introduction to Building Interactive Web Sites,' and provides a gentle introduction to the latest version of PHP, which is version 5 and only recently available."

This book is not particularly useful for those experienced already with PHP, nor for those wanting to upgrade their knowledge of PHP from versions 4 and earlier to the newest version. [...] There are 13 chapters and 3 appendices. The early chapters provide an orientation to PHP, including its place in contemporary web development, its basic rules, and its syntax. [...] Chapters 2 through 12 have short exercises at the end of each to allow the reader to practice writing PHP code and to test learning. [...] The rest of the middle chapters cover the use and implementation of cookies and sessions, handling dates and time, and working with files.

His basic comments on the book? I found the book to be the most accessible introduction to PHP I have read. It provides the basic fundamentals, engages the reader in practical examples, reinforces learning with exercises, and provides an overall perspective on the scope of PHP programming.

A pretty generic response without much consideration of how the book was written, how well it covers the topics mentioned, or what is missing from the book. Has anyone else read this book? Any reviews/comments/praises for David's new book?