conventions used in this book

the first time each acronym appears, such as pebkac (problem exists between keyboard and chair), it will appear in bold. geeks love their acronyms. the first time these terms appear, the definition will also follow enclosed inside of parenthesis.

whenever code examples are displayed, they will appear within a gray table and be printed in courier font as follows:

 // this is an example function recruit {    echo 'greetings operative.'; } 

at the end of each chapter will be a special hands-on project. these projects should not be skipped as they will help the learning process to sink in, and provide useful tools for you to take advantage of later.

i like to type in parenthesis as if i'm talking to myself or further elaborating on something (kind of like this example right here). when i say to type something and surround it in "double-quotes" don't type the quotes unless specifically stated otherwise.