Namespaces were a long awaited feature in PHP. While many other important features were released with PHP 5, namespaces were not supported until version 5.3. This led to various techniques for emulating them which, though necessary, were messy and confusing. Although namespaces have been part of PHP for over a year now, such techniques still exist. Many developers simply don't know how to use proper namespaces in their code. In this article I will explain why namespaces are important and how you can use them in your own PHP code.

He starts off by talking about what namespaces are and how they can be used to segment up applications, especially larger ones, into more manageable chunks. Basic code is included showing how to implement a namespace, referencing items inside a namespace, the "use" keyword and the __NAMESPACE__ magic variable.

PHP is the world's most popular scripting language for many different reasons - flexibility, ease-of-use, among others - but often times coding in PHP, or any language for that matter, can get rather monotonous and repetitive. That's where a PHP framework can help. [...] Frameworks can also help beginners to build more stable apps by ensuring proper database interaction and coding on the presentation layer. This allows you to spend more time creating the actual web application, instead of spending time writing repetitive code.

They touch on why you should use a framework and when are appropriate times to make them a part of your development. They also point out a few common mistakes that are often made when using frameworks like using a framework above your skill level or ensuring that all other technologies will work with your framework of choice.

They finish the article off with a look at the features of five different frameworks:

• Zend Framework
• CakePHP
• Symfony
• CodeIgniter
• Seagull

PHP (or Personal HomePage Tools) was created by Rasmus Lerdorf over three years ago to track visitors to his homepage. PHP has since evolved into a powerful server-side markup language with syntax that resembles a mix between Perl and C.

They cover all of the key questions - what is PHP, why use it and a simple explanation of a basic script (outputting the date) as well as links to other external resources where you can get more information.

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.

Here's some of his list:

• The PHP Community
• The (language's) Performance
• Its Portability
• It has strong Object-oriented support

Other things got a mention as well - the low learning curve, low cost, included libraries - but the above few seemed the strongest.

For people new to OOP and are comfortable with 'classic' procedural php, you may be wondering why should you even bother to learn object oriented concepts...why go through the trouble?

He has several suggestions included in the post like:

• PHP is moving in an OOP direction [...] So, to really understand and use these frameworks properly, you need to understand object oriented PHP.
• Object oriented PHP really begins to shine as the project becomes more complex, and when you have more than one person doing the programming.
• OOP is the modern way of software development and all the major languages [...] it only makes sense (in terms of career,) to keep your skills up-to-date.
• OOP based PHP is much easier to maintain and update

He also suggests a method for developers to get started with OOP in PHP - how to plan out a project and think in objects rather than procedurally.

In an earlier entry I promised that we will explain why we develop Stubbles. Well, there is a short version of it and a long version.

Short version: for us.
Read on for the long version.

He (Franke Kleine) lists out the reasons in his long version, including:

• Release cycles and maintenance requirements
• Why "use your force to improve another framework" is not a valid point
• Do we really reinvent the wheel?
• More company influence
• To open source or to not open source

As many of you know I changed the frontpage of php.net recently by moving conference announcements and call for papers to its own dedicated page in a desperate attempt to regain the control of our frontpage.

The rest of the post discusses the points of "why?", "regain control?", "what gave you the right?" and even links to a patch that puts a "conference teaser" back on the page (near the top).

The absolute best session I attended at OSCON 2006 was the "PHP Lightening Talks". Some of the presentations were interesting, others were hilarious. Theo Schlossnagle's Why PHP Sucks was both. Theo is a facilitating to sit and listen to, as you'll soon see when I post my interview with him. He's also quite funny when he wants to be. His presentation was interesting. It was part tongue-in-cheek and part dead serious but Theo left it to you to decide which was which.

He also points out another post about the talk from Chris Shiflett where a rather large discussion started about the contents of Theo's slides. And Cal hits the nail on the head:

The talk was good, don't get me wrong, but the conversation it inspired is much more interesting.

With the growing demand of PHP in the web applications, PHP modules have been introduced to cater for web design and web development needs in order to shorten the development process and eliminate writing PHP codes from scratch.

The article talks about the huge growth lately in the number of frameworks and "ready-made modules" that has happened lately. It mentions that these are growing because PHP's growing (and PHP's growing because...well, you get the idea). These modules can play an important part in an application and can cut down development time greatly - always good from a business standpoint.