The IBM developerWorks website has a few suggestions - seven of them, in fact - that they think can help make you a better PHP programmer.

With PHP's object-oriented (OO) language features, if you aren't already creating your applications with OO principles in mind, these seven habits will help you get started in the transition between procedural programming and OO programming.

Each of the seven OOP habits have more details below them, but here's the short list:

• Be modest.
• Be a good neighbor.
• Avoid looking at Medusa.
• Embrace the weakest link.
• You're rubber; I'm glue.
• Keep it in the family.
• Think in patterns.

In each there's a "bad habit" and a "good habit" to explain the concept a bit more fully, everything from error handling to interfaces.