Electronic Books about PHP and mysql

[Tim Chase]

> anyone know a source for electronic books about mysql and php?

What level are you starting at?  Beginner programmer? 
Experienced application developer but new to web or database 
coding?  There are a lot of good resources for free on the web, 
but it would help to know where you're coming from.  Particularly 
the answers to the following:

- do you have *any* programming experience? (shell scripting, a 
rusty college Pascal class, or whatever)

- do you have any HTML experience?

- do you have any SQL/database experience?

- do you have an account/server you can use to deploy sample code 
on?  This can be as simple as a private home Linux box (which you 
likely have since you're on this mailing list), but you'd have to 
install Apache, PHP/mod_php, and MySQL if you haven't already. 
If you want to go a step easier, you can install SQLite instead 
of PHP which just uses a file to store your data, without the 
need for a SQL serving daemon process running in the background. 
  SQLite doesn't scale as well to high traffic as MySQL or 
PostgreSQL do, but for a learning experiment, it's a lot easier 
to get set up and running.

With answers to such questions, it's easier to direct you to an 
appropriate resource -- I wouldn't want to point you to something 
like "enterprise scaling with PHP & MySQL" if you've never coded 
before; just as I wouldn't want to direct you to "how to program 
with PHP & MySQL for morons" if you've developed your own sites 
and just need to translate those skills to PHP+MySQL.

Given that your .signature shows you to be a systems-engineer, I 
suspect you're somewhere in the middle of that spectrum.

-tim