International PHP Magzine: Poll Question: Do you believe the following about PHP?
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The International PHP Magazine is back once again with the results from this week's poll that asked "Do you believe the following about PHP?" Options included:  PHP administrators like to compile PHP in Summer Register global is not dead memory_limit is not used PHP applications handle 100 Mb files  And coming out on top with 17.7% of the votes was the "Register globals" option, and coming in right behind was "handle 100Mb files" with 12.7% of the votes.   They've also posted a new poll for this week that asks "Why should a developer use CakePHP?" Check it out and vote for your choice of the six options.
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You cannot help but like someone like Greg who is honest and humble:  "I am one of the core developers of the PEAR package who has joined the game relatively late... The base PEAR class is one monstrous mistake, and PEAR_Error is pretty close. Everyone knows this. I designed an error class that is much, much more flexible and it is part of PEAR 1.3.1 (PEAR_ErrorStack) - check it out. "  Sadly it's just not true that everyone knows that PEAR class is big mistake (Jeff Moore has more on why PEAR.php is awful).  Given that PEAR is both an important framework and a worthless class, the confusion in names will  definitely  cause the value of the PEAR class to be overestimated. Just read any article on PEAR and you can see what nice words they have to say about the base classes :-(     I once said once that too many PEAR developers were journeymen. This might have offended  some people, but I was trying hard to be diplomatic. I must say that today the PEAR group is definitely more mature, and they have learnt a lot about library design. What would really make my eyes light up  would be an PEAR2 initiative that kept the existing classes, but dropped the bad seeds such as PEAR.php (e.g. the PEAR and PEAR_Error classes).   And in case you were wondering, I do think there's great value in the PEAR DB API. API's are important for interoperatability. For example, ADOdb has a PEAR DB compatibility mode. I would certainly be flattered if PEAR DB had an ADOdb compat mode too :-)
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Popular posts from PHPDeveloper.org for the past week:Sebastian Bergmann's Blog: Support for the Cancel Case Workflow PatternCommunity News: The PDO v2 ProposalSite News: Popular Posts for the Week of 01.25.2008ProPHP Podcast: PHP Newscast for 2008/01/24Developer Tutorials Blog: Why you should be using YAML for configJob Posting: InvestorGuide.com Seeks Web Developer (Fairfax, VA)Pierre-Alain Joye's Blog: Debugging symfony (or any php script) with vim and XdebugCIO.com: You Used PHP to Write WHAT?!Demian Turner's Blog: Seagull 0.6.4 Release (fixes Security Isse from 0.6.3)Developer Tutorials Blog: PHP Qualifications: The Good, The Bad and The Ugly
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Lukas Smith is sending a wakeup call to the internet providers and web hosters out there - get involved in the PHP community!   We do not seem to have any ISP's active inside the PHP community. This is kind of odd, considering that PHP seems to be driving the business of hosters quite a bit. Why have none of them decided that PHP is important enough for their business that its worthwhile to ensure that their interests are taken into account?   He makes the suggestion of passing along the suggestion to bosses/co-workers/anyone who'll listen about getting involved. Suggested places to start would be as a part of the testers group or even contributing to the migration guide.
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The results from the latest poll conducted by the International PHP Magazine have been released. This time, they asked developers what they thought was the best way to do QA for their PHP applications.   Among the options were things like "Do API documentation", "Use code analyzers that check CS violations, XSS or SQL injection attacks" and the number one choice - "Do unit tests using PHPUnit or phpt". Three other options followed behind (using debugging tools, code analyzers and having a commit mailing list) with the API documentation falling down in last place.   They already started up this week's poll too. This time, they ask developers to vote on which of the options make for good PHP code. There's four options - structured, consistent, portable and secure. Get your vote in today!
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In a new post to her blog today, Ligaya Turmelle mentions a conversation she was having with some of the PHP documentation team about their transitions and the possibilities for integrating something new into the system - creating phpt tests automatically.   Seems Philip and colder were talking on the IRC about possibly using the php doc examples to automatically generate some phpt tests to make sure the examples in the docs worked correctly. I personally think it is a great idea for another reason - it would give the QA team a base listing of phpt tests for the various PHP functions. With that base listing it would be easier to modify/add to the various phpt tests to cover the boundries of the function.   A script to implement this feature is already in the works - a preview of it can even be found here.
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Popular posts from PHPDeveloper.org for the past week:Community News: Namespaces in PHP6Mike Potter's Blog: Sample Code From PHP / Flex e-SeminarThe Bakery: PremierMarinas.com, ScienceHack.com and an iPhone AppPHP F1: PHP Session TutorialCommunity News: GoPHP5 Official SiteCommunity News: jPOP Framework - Javascript & PHPTim Koschuetzki's Blog: Composing Methods: Remove Assignments to ParametersAlexey Zakhlestin's Blog: YAML: Syck for PHP is not read-only anymoreMatthew O'Phinney's Blog: File_Fortune refactoredSite News: Popular Posts for the Week of 07.06.2007
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The International PHP Magazine has posted the results for this week's poll that asked which, of the options given, was what made the CodeIgniter framework the best.   There were only four options this time:   Saves Time and Code for Simple things Based on MVC pattern Easy to Extend Flexibility to create own libraries and helpers   Coming in in a close race for second and first were the "flexibility" and "saves time" options (with the first beating the other by less than 2 percent).   Be sure to check out and cast your vote in their latest poll posted this week that asks "What's the best way to do QA in PHP?"
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From Dotvoid.com, there's a new posting talking about the continued use of PHP4 by developers and hosting companies and how it's effecting the community as a whole.    It is true that the PHP 5 uptake has been slow. Many internet service providers as well as many developers are reluctant to switch. This is probably, as others have stated, a circular dependency.   As ISP:s are reluctant to upgrade the popular open source projects are hesitant to upgrade. I still think the wrong people are worried. Still PHP 5 is increasing it's share and finally the day will come when version 4 will be considered legacy. Hopefully before PHP 6 is here but not necessarily.    He continues on, talking about what PHP5 is really about (it's not just the objects!) and things that can help make it an easier sell to those still lagging in a PHP4 world - like the Zend Framework.
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Popular posts from PHPDeveloper.org for the past week:RefreshinglyBlue Blog: PHP vs Ruby - Practical Language DifferencesAndreas Gohr's Blog: Determine StumbleUpon RankingsPHP.net: PHP 5.2.4 ReleasedThe Bakery: Five New Posts - Custom Views, CSS, ViewInFile, ActsAs and Email ValidationPHPBuilder.com: File uploads made easyStefan Mischook's Blog: Turning on display_errors in WAMP - Video Tutorialphp|architect: Pro::PHP Podcast - Newscast for August 2007MT-Soft Blog: Creating a secure PHP production environment from Source CodeCommunity News: Andi Gutmans to Present at AjaxWorld 2007HowTo Forge: How To Set Up A Facebook RSS Feed Reader
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Josh Sharp has posted a new article to his blog advocating something that there's still a lot of controversy around in the PHP community - frameworks (when to use them and when to not).   PHP's ease of use is also its downfall. Because there are less restrictions on the structure of the code you write, it's much easier to write bad code. But there is a solution: use a framework. [...] Of course, if you're not taken with any of the packages above you can also write your own framework, which I've done and will talk about in the next few posts. But for now, let's have a look at the common benefits of a framework.   He's broken it out to talk about the usual framework structure, MVC and how a framework can enforce good code standards. He also mentions some happy side benefits of their use including making for "pretty URLs" and the helpers that most of the frameworks come with.
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The results of the latest poll from the International PHP Magazine are in. The question this time asked which, of the options given, were your favorites in the Smyfony project's feature set. There was a clear winner above all of the others - the scaffolding that it makes so simple.   Some of the other options that were included but didn't get nearly as many votes were:  Simple templating and helpers Multilingualism and I18N support Object model and MVC separation Ajax support  Following at a distant second was the "Object model and MVC separation" choice (and to others, "Enterprise ready" and "Ajax support" nipping close at its heels).   Be sure to cast your vote in this week's poll that asks your opinion on some of the rules that the PHP Throwdown has set in place. Vote for the one that you think fits best with the spirit of the competition.
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George Schlossnagle has a new posting on his weblog today asking the PHP community "What do you think PHP is missing?"
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For your consideration today, Philip Olson has worked up a listing of twenty (humorous) possible reasons that the names of the PHP functions are weird.   Here are 20 possible reasons why PHP functions lack consistent names and parameters. Learning the definition for every PHP function is truly an amazing feat and I doubt this has been attempted or accomplished by anyone. At least, by any sane human. And references are named references because they are designed to be referenced, right?   Items on the list include:  PHP likes BC PHP says all your namespace are belong to us PHP function naming algorithm still remains a secret and cannot be cracked PHP isn't designed to win a beauty contest
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Matthew O'Phinney has two new posts that talk about something object-oriented developers seem to shy away from - globals in their classes and how they can make things more difficult to make "embeddable applications" a reality.   In my previous entry, I ranted about the use of globals in popular PHP applications, and how they make embedding said applications difficult. I develop using object-oriented practices, and can honestly say I can't recall ever having slung a global variable around in my own code. Globals seem hackish to me, and as a result, trying to get applications that use them to behave correctly has been a challenge.   In the first part, he notes an interesting find about the $GLOBALS value and illustrates with a code example how he was able to get around it in his instance (wrapping a Serendipity instance in a Zend Framework app).   In part two, though, and uses another code example to show what kind of issues he was seeing with the $GLOBALS - a script that sets some globals in different instances and echoes the results back out.
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On the O'Reilly OnLamp.com blog, chromatic voices some concerns about the latest PHP statistics being released.   It's been three months since PHP Versions in the Wild. What does Nexen report about PHP version adoption statistics for November? [...] Nexen's PHP Adoption Stats for November 2006 show that PHP 4.4 has surpassed PHP 4.3. PHP 5 is in the double-digits, but it's still a fraction of PHP 4's popularity, despite its climb.   He also comments that, for those working towards a PHP6 release, it "must be frustrating" to see PHP5 adoption having taken such a long time to really get a foothold.    Developers and users alike were comfortable in their PHP4 world and didn't want to branch out to this newfangled thing that is PHP5. They hear stories of how it breaks things and only causes trouble and don't want to make the move. But finally, some brave souls put their feet in the water, saw that there were no piranhas in sight and dove right in. Thankfully, more and more have followed them hearing the success and ease with which PHP5 has made things in their applications.   So, what's your excuse? Why haven't you made the switch? And will you follow those leader's example and dive right into PHP6 when it comes around?
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On the SitePoint PHP blog today, Kevin Yank shares his thoughts in the form of a list for what makes for "good" and "bad" PHP code.   When interviewing a PHP developer candidate for a job at SitePoint, there is one question that I almost always ask, because their answer tells me so much about the kind of programmer they are. Here's the question: "In your mind, what are the differences between good PHP code and bad PHP code?"   Among the items on the list for the good side are things like: structure, consistency, security, and portability. He gives a bit of example code that shows the three levels of "goodness" in a script (using $_GET variables).