Overall, I would say this is a good book on PHP - it gives a very good overview of OOP with hints on how you might want to use it. It shouldn't be bought as the sole text as it doesn't cover all areas in detail.

There are a few annoyances that seem to have arisen through editing and perhaps lack of coordination between authors.

Different coding conventions are used throughout the book - suddenly in Chapter 7 we are seeing # comments instead of // and the use of ; after closing braces }. This isn't really confusing for non-beginners, but does indicate a lack of attention to detail.

The GenericObject class in chapter 7 should really have led into the Database Abstraction class in chapter 8, but instead creates its own SQL statements. Were the two authors (clearly different because of the coding differences) talking to each other? It doesn't seem so. Chapter 9 on Factory classes discusses them in the context of creating different ways of connecting to Databases, but that has already been handled with PEAR::DB in Chapter 8.

Don't believe the claim that you will have a reusable tool kit if classes by working through this book - they don't work together and haven't really been intended to. Just use this book as one guide, amongst others, to OOP in PHP5.

Agreed in principle, but I can see how some people would come away from this book even less confident about the OO cpabilites of PHP5 and throw in the towel. I would say to them dont fret too much, the authors have complicated things a bit here by not coordinating properly, get a good book on pure OOP and then keep pluggin away at it with other resources.

I like this book, but I've only read the first 7 chapters. I've learned so much, I had to take a break and start writing some code before I try to digest any more of it. The authors point out that the earlier examples in the book are not good examples of OOP, but simply examples to show you how your code will progress through stages of sophistication, from basic OOP to advanced OOP. There's no inconsistency, since you have to get some experience with doing things the long way first before you can appreciate the short cuts (generic objects). Take your time with this book and don't get frustrated. If you try to digest it all at once, you're sure to be discouraged.

Carl Olsen