We can expect big things from Davey Shafik in the coming months - he's been working on a book for php|architect about one of the more powerful bits of functionality in PHP - streams.

For about 6 months now, I've been itching to write a book on the PHP Streams Layer - one of my favorite features of PHP; and also one of the least known considering it's powerful abilities.

He describes his goal simply as this: to create the definitive resource for working with the streams later in PHP. It should be out sometime in the third quarter of 2008, so keep your eye out for it then.

Davey Shafik has posted a quick update about the php|architect guide to the Zend PHP5 Certification exam and its updates.

Just a quick note to say that the second edition of the study guide has been released. It features all erratta items fixed, as well as a new chapter on Database Programming. If you didn't grab it yet, it makes a great reference for any intermediate and above developer, as well as obviously being the study guide that it is meant to be

You can get more information on the book (and place your order) on the book's website - zceguide.com.

The Zend Developer Zone has posted episode eleven of their ZendCon Session podcast series today, Brian DeShong's talk from ZendCon 2007 on development methods.

Welcome to The ZendCon Sessions. This episode of The ZendCon Sessions was recorded live at ZendCon 2007 in Burlingame, CA. We hope you enjoy today's session as we listen to Brian DeShong present "The Grown-Up Company's Guide to Development".

There's two ways to get this new episode - either download it directly from the ZDZ or you can subscribe to the feed and get this and other great recordings from the 2007 Zend conference.

DevShed is getting back to basics with a new series it's started - a beginner's guide to programming with PHP. They've already posted part one:

PHP has been taking the web by storm because of its power and versatility. If you'd like to add PHP-based applications to your web site, keep reading. This series of articles will teach you the language from scratch.

They start with a mini-history of the language to get the budding developers out there warmed up. From there they move into some of the foundations of the language - what it was created for, the kind of functionality you'll find inside it and a first trip into variables (specifically strings).