I haven't read either of those books. However - you are starting a learning experience, and anything is better than nothing.

I don't know of any wysiwyg php editor, and I would be surprised if you find one. Who knows.

However - here is the thing about learning to program in your situation: If what you want to do is learn to program, then you should learn to program. If what you want to do is make software, then you can start a company, raise some operating capital somehow, hire managers and programmers (along with all the support personnel for this), and you'll have a company making software. If you are good at raising money and/or starting and running a company - then go that route. The thing is that there are 1000 paths to get to where you might want to be going, and no one can tell you which is the right path. There are many other ways to approach this than the two I mentioned above - you could fully document your ideas, get a patent or other legal protection, and go out and market the idea to people who have what it takes to implement it (and pay you for the idea). Or, you could go to work for a company that hires bright people with good marketable ideas and build up a network of supporters (by playing the politics of the company) and pitch your idea at just the right moment (like after you have just had a big success with some project you have taken on) and so on... and so on. Most of the people replying to posts on a forum like this aren't going to be a great help in figuring out this one.

Woody Z
http://www.learntoprogramnow.com