I applaud his effort to explain how to learn PHP, especially glad to hear that the #php community is polite and helpful. On the other hand, I would not recommend reading the manual as a way to learn a language. The PHP online reference is excellent but it's a reference. Rather than just plowing through it, I'd recommend an introductory book/video/tuturioral, then start working on your idea and keep the manual open in a browser tab! :)

I go with reading the manual. That is how I learned Fortran back in the day. I learned PHP by reading the php website. PHP for me was just Perl will all the logic ripped out and replaced with words.

I am not sure reading the manual is a good way if you don't already know a language.