"Programming PHP" does an excellent job of teaching the language to those with a little bit of software background, for example in Perl or C. The first few chapters quickly demonstrate what can be done with the language and document the language basics, which, while C-like, have a few differences that are important to be aware of. The book is clear enough that it may be useful to a savvy person with no computer language background.

The rest of the chapters cover specific issues in more detail. There are chapters both on more involved language features, like PHP's treatment of strings, arrays, and objects, and on applications of the language, such as using databases with PHP and how best to handle web site security issues in a PHP based site. These chapters are independent of each other, so the reader can focus on various issues as they come up - though a few, like the security chapter and the application techniques chapter, are worth reading earlier if you have time, as they will help you set up your web site scripts so as to prevent headaches later on.

The text has many examples, which are well designed to succinctly document language features. These examples seem to be largely accurate and bug free. It may help that one of the authors, Rasmus Lerdorf, is the original creator of PHP.

The book covers language fundamentals--many of which are similar enough to Java, C, JavaScript, etc. that a programmer with even a modicum of experience with those languages will quickly pick up the syntax--and then goes into detail on various aspects of PHP programming, from web programming to database integration.

The book does only touch on some areas; the database chapters, for instance, concetrate mainly on the MySQL interface, though PHP can easily be used with PostGRESQL and even products like Oracle and Microsoft SQLServer. However, there are more in-depth books for readers wishing to explore those topics in detail.

The programmer's function reference and other appendices are useful as well, although at times finding a function in the index will only direct you to a short entry in the function reference, not an in-depth explanation as to its application.

If you want to set up a scripted, interactive web site without having to learn the more difficult (and at times less suitable) Perl, then PHP is for you. As the language exists on both Unix and Windows platforms, PHP can serve as an alternative to other scripting languages as well such as ASP / VBScript. This book is the key to getting started.