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Web Talk

PHP is a server-side scripting language. If you've seen ASP, you'll be familiar with embedding code within an HTML page. Like ASP, PHP script is processed by the Web server. After the server plays with the PHP code, it returns plain old HTML back to the browser. This kind of interaction allows for some pretty complex operations.

PHP can be run as an external CGI process, a stand-alone script interpreter, or an embedded Apache module.

PHP supports a host of other features right at the technological edge of Internet development. These include authentication, XML, dynamic image creation, WDDX, shared memory support, and dynamic PDF document creation to name but a few. If that's not enough, PHP is easy to extend, so you can roll your own solution if you're programming savvy.

• PHP.net is the official home page of the PHP language. Here you can download the latest version of PHP for free, and check out what's going on in PHP development. There is an FAQ, a manual, and numerous other resources.
• PHPbuilder.com is geared toward developers; it contains numerous articles and code samples, job postings, and links to PHP resources.
• Webmonkey's PHP Section contains a number of articles on PHP starting at the introductory level.
• The PHP Pocket Reference by Rasmus Lerdorf. O'Reilly & Associates, January 2000 (ISBN: 1565927699). This pocket guide stands out because it was written by the creator of PHP, and because it actually contains some real source code examples. You can't actually learn PHP just by reading the pocket guide, but you can come close.
• The Professional PHP Programming by Jesus Castagnetto et al. Wrox Press, September 1999 (ISBN: 1861002963). An in-depth reference with extensive working example applications that you can download from their Web site.

Perl

• Perl.com contains a variety of links to useful Perl information and groups, as well as information about the latest development efforts.
• Freecode.com contains a lot of free source code examples, many of which are written in Perl.
• Perl and CGI for the World Wide Web, Visual Quickstart Guide by Elizabeth Castro. Peachpit Press, November 1998 (ISBN: 020135358X). This is an excellent book for learning Perl and I strongly recommend it. It contains many simple examples and the book itself is easy to follow. You'll be up and running in no time, really.
• Perl 5 Pocket Reference by Johan Vromans. O'Reilly & Associates, May 2000 (ISBN: 0596000324). This is a good quick reference if you already know the language, but not the way to learn the language.
• The Perl CD Bookshelf, O'Reilly & Associates, August 1999 (ISBN: 1565924622). This contains a copy of Perl in a Nutshell, as well as six books on CD. It's the most bang for the buck, as long as you don't mind pointing and clicking your way to the correct information. The six books are presented in HTML format with an automatic search engine.

Java

• What are you waiting for? Download your own IBM developer kit from dW.
• ZDNet Developer contains a lot of information about Java development and numerous examples with source code.
• Java for the World Wide Web, Visual QuickStart Guide by Dori Smith. Peachpit Press, September 1998 (ISBN: 0201353407). Not as good as the Perl version mentioned above. This book is well-written, but the author has written code examples in such a way that they don't compile unless you change the HTML code or place them in a certain directory, something she doesn't bother to mention. This also applies to the examples you can download from her Web site. It is oriented towards applets rather than servlets, but it does serve as a good introduction to the Java language itself.
• Java2, the Complete Reference by Patrick Naughton and Herbert Schildt. Osborne/McGraw Hill, February 1999 (ISBN: 0072119764). This is a truly complete reference and it contains descriptions of the methods you can call for most of the important classes in Java 2. It also contains a special chapter to get you started writing servlets.

Erik Zoltán has been writing code professionally since 1990. He's a full-time telecommuter living in Leominster, Massachusetts. You can e-mail him at erik@zoltan.org or view his home page at www.zoltan.org. Erik can frequently be seen driving around in a 1996 Saturn painted in Vincent Van Gogh's The Starry Night.