Anthony Ferrara has started a new series of posts to his blog that will introduce you to the source behind the project - the code that makes PHP tick. In this first part of the series, he gives more of an overview of things like where you can find the source and some basic C concepts.

In this post, we'll walk through the basics of the PHP application: where to find it, the general structure of the codebase and a few really fundamental concepts about the C language. To be clear, the goal of the series is to get a reading comprehension of the source code. [...] Additionally, this series is going to be based off the 5.4 codebase. The concepts should be pretty much the same from version to version, but this way there's a defined version that we're working against (to make it easier to follow later, when new versions come out).

He includes the link to the PHP SVN repository to grab the latest source, talks some about the general structure of the codebase and basic C information in case you're not versed in the language (like variables and pre-processor instructions).

In this new post to his blog Sameer Borate applies an interesting method of discovery of structure in unfamiliar code - generating code signatures.

One method [Ward Cunningham] suggests is that of summarizing on a single line select punctuation characters from each source file. He calls this the file's "signature". This will help the developer gauge the complexity of the code base.

He includes a few examples from files in WordPress - looking for the structure of curly braces and semicolons as delimiters for chunks of functionality. Included are a few lines of code to help you generate a signature from any file and an example of a result. It's an interesting idea, but I'm not sure how practical it is. It could be a helpful reference for how complicated the file is, though.

The NOLOH project has officially announced the release of a large demos section of their site complete with live examples of the framework in action.

Until now one of the biggest issues with noloh.com was the need to sign-up for a free hosted sandbox, or download NOLOH in order to see it in action. No Longer. We're happy to officially announce the launch of noloh.com's Demo section. The demo section allows you to play with live demos and examples, view their source, download the complete source, and even fork your very own version on github.

Currently there's two examples for you to check out - an implementation of Hangman and an Image Broswer. Their "live example" gives a simple browser to run the application in, a source code viewer and a link to discuss the script. You can also, as they mention, fork it directly on github or just download it directly.

Sebastian Bergmann, developer of the PHPUnit unit testing software for PHP, has posted about a major move of the source code for the project over to github.

I was hearing more and more positive things about Git and GitHub from my peers. So I took the PHP_ObjectFreezer code base and migrated it to Git and hosted the repository and GitHub to experiment with both the tool and the platform. It was a step that I did not regret and all the projects that I started since then are hosted on GitHub: bytekit-cli, phpcpd, phpdcd, phploc, PHP_CodeCoverage, PHP_FileIterator, PHP_ObjectFreezer, Text_Template, PHP_TokenStream.

He explains some of his thinking behind the move and why he moved towards a distributed version control model rather than something like subversion. So, if you're looking for the latest sources for PHPUnit, you'll find them here. (He also includes the steps he took to import the code into github by making use of the svn2git tool).

Sandro Groganz has pointed out a new article in the latest issue of the German publication PHP Magazin about marketing open source PHP software titled "Auf die offene Art".

Good source doesn't always speak for itself because the better product does not always establish itself without help. Why is that? This article gives some answers as to how a PHP-based product can be presented well in the market with the right marketing and community as a PHP based product well in the market can be placed through appropriate marketing and communication palatable to potential customers.

You can get your copy of this latest issue (German only) from the PHP Magazin website (with a cover story looking at the DojoX framework).

Pádraic Brady has followed up his last post on PEAR. This time he's covered the method to package and distribute source code using the PEAR installer.

All right then! You read the last blog entry advocating PEAR (or found it during the week ;-)) and you want to know all about packaging code so your users can install your library or application using the PEAR installer. A few things first:

1. You don't need to propose a package to PEAR to do this.
2. You don't need to create a PEAR "channel" although it's very much recommended (another future blog post no doubt).
3. You don't need a whole lot of effort.

Taking your source code, and generating a PEAR package is a relatively simple task.

He covers the process at lengths with easy to follow steps.

Felix Geisendörfer has officially released the latest version of his Containable Behavior for the CakePHP framework:

Sorry I've taken so long to get a new version of my Containable Behavior released, but believe me I've not been slacking this time. [...] In fact I'm releasing the new version as a BETA right now since I'm still not 100% satisfied with the result and not all features have made it in yet, but I felt the need for iterating. However, the new version should be a big step up from this initial one and I hopefully bug free.

The post includes both the code for the new version of the behavior but also several examples on its use. Improvements in this new version include better performance, new function (containments), support for dynamic field containments and different field containments.