Programming PHP

Colophon
Our look is the result of reader comments, our own experimentation, and feedback
from distribution channels. Distinctive covers complement our distinctive approach
to technical topics, breathing personality and life into potentially dry subjects.
The animal on the cover of Programming PHP is a cuckoo (Cuculus canorus).
Cuckoos epitomize minimal effort. The common cuckoo doesn’t build a nest—
instead, the female cuckoo finds another bird’s nest that already contains eggs and
lays an egg in it (a process she may repeat up to 25 times, leaving 1 egg per nest). The
nest mother rarely notices the addition, and usually incubates the egg and then feeds
the hatchling as if it were her own. Why don’t nest mothers notice that the cuckoo’s
eggs are different from their own? Recent research suggests that it’s because the eggs
look the same in the ultraviolet spectrum, which birds can see.
When they hatch, the baby cuckoos push all the other eggs out of the nest. If the
other eggs hatched first, the babies are pushed out too. The host parents often
continue to feed the cuckoo even after it grows to be much larger than they are, and
cuckoo chicks sometimes use their call to lure other birds to feed them as well. Interestingly,
only Old World (European) cuckoos colonize other nests—the New World
(American) cuckoos build their own (untidy) nests. Like many Americans, these
cuckoos migrate to the tropics for winter.
Cuckoos have a long and glorious history in literature and the arts. The Bible
mentions them, as do Pliny and Aristotle. Beethoven used the cuckoo’s distinctive
call in his Pastoral Symphony. And here’s a bit of etymology for you: the word
“cuckold” (a husband whose wife is cheating on him) comes from “cuckoo.”
Presumably, the practice of laying one’s eggs in another’s nest seemed an appropriate
metaphor.
Rachel Wheeler was the production editor and copyeditor for Programming PHP.
Sue Willing and Jeffrey Holcomb provided quality control, and Sue Willing provided
production assistance. Ellen Troutman-Zaig wrote the index.
Ellie Volckhausen designed the cover of this book, based on a series design by Edie
Freedman. The cover image is a 19th-century engraving from the Dover Pictorial
Archive. Emma Colby produced the cover layout with QuarkXPress 4.1 using
Adobe’s ITC Garamond font.
Melanie Wang designed the interior layout, based on a series design by David
Futato. Neil Walls converted the files from Microsoft Word to FrameMaker 5.5.6
using tools created by Mike Sierra. The text font is Linotype Birka; the heading font
is Adobe Myriad Condensed; and the code font is LucasFont’s TheSans Mono
Condensed. The illustrations that appear in the book were produced by Robert
Romano and Jessamyn Read using Macromedia FreeHand 9 and Adobe Photoshop
6. This colophon was written by Nathan Torkington and Rachel Wheeler.