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!

Seasons: 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012

24^th Dec: 1,500 Lines of Code by 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…
23^rd Dec: Exceptional PHP by Brandon Savage

Call me crazy, but I love exceptions. I love exceptions to the rules. I love exceptions to language syntax…
22^nd Dec: PHP in Odd Places by Derick Rethans

PHP has traditionally been used to solve web problems, and for this, it excels. Over the past year and a half…
21^st Dec: GeoIP Wrangling by Andrei Zmievski

When making the Analog holding page, we wanted to add a touch of personality to make the experience warmer…
20^th Dec: Unmaintainable PHP by Stoyan Stefanov

With the recent unemployment rates, everybody realizes that job security is important. The best way to keep a job is…
19^th Dec: Performance for Web Apps by Ilia Alshanetsky

When it comes to programming, there are two things that I enjoy doing the most: making things faster and improving security…
18^th Dec: You Don’t Need All That by 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…
17^th Dec: PHP’s Not Just a Language by Ben Ramsey

Six years ago, I became aware of the PHP community. I joined it three years prior to that…
16^th Dec: Managing Bob by Luke Welling

The interaction between technical people and the project sponsor has common patterns regardless of your employment model. Project sponsors…
15^th Dec: Dæmonize Your PHP by 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…
14^th Dec: CSS and Other People by Marco Tabini

The road between design and development is fraught with all sorts of peril…
13^th Dec: Untitled by 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…
12^th Dec: JSON Gotchas by Christian Wenz

Rich Internet Applications are constantly communicating with the server, sending and retrieving data. Since bandwidth is scarce…
11^th Dec: World of PHPCraft by 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…
10^th Dec: Character Sets: Garbage In, Garbage Out by Paul Reinheimer

I recently checked on a project, because the developers were having some problems with strange characters displaying on the page…
9^th Dec: Developers Versus Designers by 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…
8^th Dec: Testing with PHPT and xUnit by 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…
7^th Dec: Get a Haircut by 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…
6^th Dec: Parenting Versus Programming by 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…
5^th Dec: Automate Your Deployment by 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…
4^th Dec: One Step at a Time by 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…
3^rd Dec: Do URLs Matter? by David Sklar

There are a variety of reasons to structure your URLs a certain way, but does it really matter? Let’s discuss…
2^nd Dec: You Really Need to Learn JavaScript by 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…
1^st Dec: Comprehensible Code by 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…