Iwan Luijks has a recent post to his blog trying to dispel some of the myths and misconceptions about becoming a certified ZCE through Zend's testing. He also includes some of the benefits of having the certification to go with your name.

In the community of PHP developers there are more non-certified professionals than certified professionals. PHP developers mostly don't really see the pro's of getting certified. These developers mostly honor the fact that PHP is a quick and easy language to learn and to get started with, and professionalism is found even by building a simple dynamic web page, leaving the discussion of whether this is a good or bad thing for what it is.

He talks about the confidence it can give current (and future) employers in your skill level and let them know you're the kind that keeps on learning/improving in your career. It also lets them know that you're dedicated enough to learn what you need to pass and can put it into practice easier in the future.

In a new episode of the Voices of the ElePHPant podcast, Cal Evans has taken a break from the normal "Three Questions" format of the podcast so far and has instead posted an discussion about recruiters. Brandon Savage and Scott Gordon talk about the pros and cons of working with recruiters.

Once I read [Brandon's post on why recruiters are bad for your career], I knew that I needed to get Brandon, and another friend of mine, Scott Gordon - a recruiter for Vaco and serious social media bad-ass - together to discuss some of the points Brandon brought out. I shuld probably point out that while Scott is a recruiter, he is not your typical recruiter. He regularly talks about the shortcomings of his industry and he works to make things better.

As always, you can listen to this latest episode either via the in-page player, by downloading the mp3 or by subscribing to their feed.

Chris Roane has shared some of his thoughts on PHP, both the good and the bad (and its future) in the latest post to his blog.

People have different opinions in what they think is the best web programming language for certain tasks. Speed, ease of use, flexibility, learning curve, popularity and feature list are a few criteria you can use in "judging" a programming language.

He notes that, while PHP is a powerful tool to write web applications in, it is by no means the only (or best) way to do it for all situations. He suggests, thought, that for the longevity of your business and the future of your applications as a whole, you go with something like PHP that has a good solid community and is in constant development to make it and its features better.

On the php|architect blog there's a recent post from Jayesh Wadhwani asking a question developers all over the world wonder every day - to use a framework or not to (and what's the benefit)?

A framework is usually thought of or defined as an underlying structure. You could imagine a wooden structure, sort of a skeleton when a house is being built. This provides a guide, structure and flow to build the house. A programming framework pretty much does the same thing. A programming framework provides for a structured and disciplined programming which results in a more consistent output from a programming team.

He talks more about some of the things that come with framework use like the utility and "housekeeping" code as well as code you know has been tested and used by other projects successfully (especially with something like the Zend Framework. Remember, though, there's bad that comes with them - a possible steep learning curve and overhead that could be caused by using the tools it gives you badly.

In a recent post to the phpslices.com blog there's a neutral comparison of PHP and ASP.NET based on features and a few of the common pros and cons each language has.

Consider i do not have wide experience programming with ASP.NET though i on the past used the Microsoft .NET framework. This is what i think are PRO and the CONS of both, lets consider ASP.NET 4.0 without MVC and PHP 5.3 without any framework.

Some of the pros of PHP include its low learning curve and that it's multiplatform with cons being things like performance issues and that it's more web-centric than some other languages. ASP.NET's pros include its inherent use of the .NET framework and the tools available for it with cons being that it's not Open Source, you need a Windows license to use it and that fewer web hosting providers support it.

On the Template Monster blog there's a recent post looking at some of the upcoming features in WordPress 3.0 that many WordPress site owners have eagerly been waiting for.

Alright bloggers, web surfers and simple web enthusiasts, we've got some fascinating news for you all. Yes, Internet community can't stop buzzing about the forthcoming release of the new version of #1 blogging software '" WordPress 3.0. [...] The official release is scheduled for May 2010 but now we have opportunity to mark the major advantages that this release will bring.

They list a few of the major enhancements that'll happen in the new release including:

• a built-in multi-user option
• custom post types
• a new default design/theme
• and changes related to security concerns

You can find out more about this upcoming release from this post to the man WordPress blog.

The CodeUtopia blog asks the online community for their opinion - what do you think of PHP as a first language?

Sometimes I've seen people say PHP is a bad first language, because it teaches bad programming habits. But is this actually true at all? Often those who say that don't really like PHP themselves either, many times because of equally untrue reasons.

They argue both sides of the situation, mentioning what could make for a good first language, why PHP is a "nearly perfect" fit for it and some arguing points for the other side as to why PHP isn't the best option.

David Goodwin has posted a book review of a book put out by Packt Publishing, "Object Oriented Programming with PHP5" (from Hasin Hayder).

After an email out of the blue from someone at Packt publishing, here's a review of "Object-Orientated Programming with PHP5" I don't think I've done a book review before, so apologies in advance if it's not structured in any logical manner.

He's broken it up into a few lists to make it very straight forward and easy to see if it's the book for you - the pros, the cons, the contents of the book and a random code sample (this one showing the Decorator pattern in action).

On the PHPKitchen, Demian Turner shares exactly how he managed to get the Zend Debugger up and working on his Mac Book Pro.

Okay, there is some considerable hacking involved to get this working, and the solution is only a workaround until "sometime before the end of 2006", which was quoted to me by Zend as the time they expect to get the Zend debugger working for the mactel platform. No rush there guys.

His solution involved using Parallels Desktop, Zend Studio, a hack on the installer to get it working, ensuring it finds the right php.ini (a problem he had) and customizing the setup to work with the buttons of your choosing.

On the Killersoft blog today, Clay Loveless has posted his decision about his development environment - choosing Komodo Pro over the Zend Studio.

A long time BBEdit user, I bit the bullet and (mostly) switched to Zend Studio back in November 2005. I was frustrated by Zend Studio's clunky Subversion handling, but within a few weeks was willing to put up with that for Zend Studio's great debugging environment and intimate knowledge of PHP that helps speed coding along on a line-by-line basis.

The switch to an Intel Mac broke Zend Studio's great debugger. Whoops! There went at least half of why I was using Zend Studio in the first place. Enter Komodo Pro. Komodo Pro 3 has supported Intel Macs for months. (Still no word from Zend on this issue.) Its debugging environment is based on the robust Xdebug extension.

He mentions that this is what he's working up his current project in, Mashery, with his own compiled version of XDebug integrated.

Komodo Pro lets me work the way I want to, with the tools (and versions of those tools) I want to use. Zend Studio, on the other hand, does not.