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Comment by tuacker | Hacker News Reader

I'm starting a new project as soon as my current one is finished based on php + javascript. Can anyone suggest good books and/or websites for those two to get started as I never really worked with either of them?

Edit: Apart from the two already mentioned in this thread. (Javascript the definitive guide and javascript the good parts)

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Eloquent Javascript is a really great ebook.

For PHP: PHP and MySQL Web Development, 4th Edition by Welling and Thomson. Learn about PDO and parameterized queries and such from the online docs; the book treats security poorly. The Web Application Hacker's Handbook would probably be a nice third book if you're feeling indulgent.

For JS: JavaScript: The Definitive Guide, 5th Edition by Flanagan. Until Secrets of the JS Ninja (or the Rhino book's 6th edition) comes out, then get those.

Out of curiosity, what have you worked with previously?

I haven't had much of real world experience until recently. I learned coding in school. We started with C then C++ and later C#(.NET) and Java (often in junction with MySQL & Oracle for which we had an extra class also). In between I remember a bit of the ancient arts of COBOL and CICS. I got into Obj-C when I switched to Mac and tried to get my feet wet with something on my own. Though I created nothing in particular with it.

It's just recently that I started working on a real project (C#) and it's been fun so far and I'm eager to finish it and get onto the next thing.

Thank you for the sources!

I found w3schools and tizag to be two of the best free web resources. JavaScript Kit goes into things in a little more depth with, IMO, better examples.

I highly recommend taking the scripts in the tutorial apart and testing to see what happens. No matter how much theoretical reading or tutorials I did, nothing came close to actual hands-on coding.

Best of luck in your project!

Thanks for the resources! I agree with regards to hands-on coding. I usually use books to learn the best practices of a certain language and to get a basic understanding. Nothing beats learning something new by solving a real problem.

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