The code in the book is exceptionally simple as another reviewer pointed out, but that is the point. The author does not have Donald Knuth envy, nor should he, if you want to learn every eventuality of every algorithm, read Knuth.
Any experienced programmer worth his salt knows the language a book is written for does not matter, it is the insight that matters, and this book is very insightful.
The use of PHP and simple functions as the main interface for the books supplied libraries makes many of the concepts available to relatively green web programmers who are probably not particular comfortable with classes if they even know what classes are... even many seasoned PHP programmers do not know how to effectively leverage the power of objects in my experience.
In other professional programming environments such as systems programming or application development you almost always hack together a very rough and simplified solution to new systems or routines before you review precisely how the pieces are going to fit together; Then you go back and engineer a real solution. This book saves you most of those efforts!
As an example reading through chapter 17 on spiders an experienced software engineer can pick out that a Strategy Pattern as prescribed by the gang of four would make an excellent and extensible harvester routine.
In summary if you are watching for ways to use the ideas presented you will come out with a wealth of insight, and this book will serve you well. If you want someone to tell you precisely how to write your project, skip this book and hire someone to build it for you.
This is absolutely not the review I intended to write here, but the other reviewer hit a nerve. I hope people find it useful none the less.
