WEB Advent 2009

Introduction

Christmas is upon us once again, and it’s time to have a look at what’s under the Web Advent tree. Join us each day as our wonderful authors provide presents of tips, tricks, & tidbits to usher in the new year. Mele Kalikimaka!

  1. 24th Dec: 1,500 Lines of Code by Terry Chay Terry Chay

    Even the best of us can only write 1,500 lines of code a day, so we need to make those lines count…

  2. 23rd Dec: Exceptional PHP by Brandon Savage Brandon Savage

    Call me crazy, but I love exceptions. I love exceptions to the rules. I love exceptions to language syntax…

  3. 22nd Dec: PHP in Odd Places by Derick Rethans Derick Rethans

    PHP has traditionally been used to solve web problems, and for this, it excels. Over the past year and a half…

  4. 21st Dec: GeoIP Wrangling by Andrei Zmievski Andrei Zmievski

    When making the Analog holding page, we wanted to add a touch of personality to make the experience warmer…

  5. 20th Dec: Unmaintainable PHP by Stoyan Stefanov Stoyan Stefanov

    With the recent unemployment rates, everybody realizes that job security is important. The best way to keep a job is…

  6. 19th Dec: Performance for Web Apps by Ilia Alshanetsky Ilia Alshanetsky

    When it comes to programming, there are two things that I enjoy doing the most: making things faster and improving security…

  7. 18th Dec: You Don’t Need All That by Marcel Esser Marcel Esser

    I’ve been writing PHP for a long time. I am not one of its dinosaurs, but I’ve been making it do my bidding since PHP 3. I have also seen a lot of trends…

  8. 17th Dec: PHP’s Not Just a Language by Ben Ramsey Ben Ramsey

    Six years ago, I became aware of the PHP community. I joined it three years prior to that…

  9. 16th Dec: Managing Bob by Luke Welling Luke Welling

    The interaction between technical people and the project sponsor has common patterns regardless of your employment model. Project sponsors…

  10. 15th Dec: Dæmonize Your PHP by Sean Coates Sean Coates

    Sometimes, we’re called on to write bits of code that live outside of our arena of the Web, and Supervisord can help…

  11. 14th Dec: CSS and Other People by Marco Tabini Marco Tabini

    The road between design and development is fraught with all sorts of peril…

  12. 13th Dec: Untitled by Matt Mullenweg Matt Mullenweg

    No one reads anymore, and you’re not going to read this. You’re going to scan it. We need to more seriously consider how application design evolves…

  13. 12th Dec: JSON Gotchas by Christian Wenz Christian Wenz

    Rich Internet Applications are constantly communicating with the server, sending and retrieving data. Since bandwidth is scarce…

  14. 11th Dec: World of PHPCraft by Sara Golemon Sara Golemon

    I’ve been a bad girl this year and neglected my PHP duties. I got sucked into World of Warcraft, and that’s a lot like like the PHP community…

  15. 10th Dec: Character Sets: Garbage In, Garbage Out by Paul Reinheimer Paul Reinheimer

    I recently checked on a project, because the developers were having some problems with strange characters displaying on the page…

  16. 9th Dec: Developers Versus Designers by Helgi Þormar Þorbjörnsson Helgi Þormar Þorbjörnsson

    Developers versus designers is a struggle that has gone on for as long as there have been computers. The bickering has been around for ages…

  17. 8th Dec: Testing with PHPT and xUnit by Greg Beaver Greg Beaver

    It’s difficult to keep your code and its associated unit tests in sync. The xUnit-PHPT testing framework was designed to solve this…

  18. 7th Dec: Get a Haircut by Jonathan Snook Jonathan Snook

    Getting a job can be a harrowing experience. Many companies run candidates through a gauntlet of tests and interviews in the hopes of separating the wheat from…

  19. 6th Dec: Parenting Versus Programming by Laura Thomson Laura Thomson

    Advent calendars are about Christmas, and for me Christmas has always been a time for family. This year I have recently joined the ranks of the parents…

  20. 5th Dec: Automate Your Deployment by Rob Allen Rob Allen

    Deploying your web site to a server can be an exercise in frustration and fraught with mistakes. There’s a lot to remember…

  21. 4th Dec: One Step at a Time by Lorna Mitchell Lorna Mitchell

    I have the privilege, in my current line of work, to be able to attend quite a number of conferences and other technical events throughout the year. At every event, I meet people…

  22. 3rd Dec: Do URLs Matter? by David Sklar David Sklar

    There are a variety of reasons to structure your URLs a certain way, but does it really matter? Let’s discuss…

  23. 2nd Dec: You Really Need to Learn JavaScript by Ed Finkler Ed Finkler

    As a PHP developer, if you haven’t taken the time to learn JavaScript beyond the basics, your skills will wither and die…

  24. 1st Dec: Comprehensible Code by Paul Jones Paul Jones

    Reading code is hard work. Here are some reasons why, along with some tips on how to make it easier for other developers to understand your code…