NetTuts.com has posted their list of what they think should be New Year's resolutions for every developer:

In less than a week, we'll be in 2012. I know it's a cliché, but where has the year gone? Naturally, we're now at the time of year when folks set goals for the new year. While you might have some goals for your "real" life, how about a few resolutions for your developer life?

Suggestions include:

• Get Better At What You Know
• Engage the Community
• Take Better Care Of Yourself
• Use Better Programming Practices
• Take a Break

On NetTuts.com today there a new article with what they think is the best way to learn PHP in a list of thirteen different "assignments".

Learning something from scratch is almost always an arduous affair - you simply have no idea as to where to start, or not to start, to kick things off. I loathed learning about the idiosyncrasies of C++'s syntax when all I wanted to learn were some darn programming concepts. As I'm sure you can agree, this is a less than ideal situation. [...] Today, we're going to figure out the best way to learn PHP.

Among their list of "assignments" are things like:

• Disregard the Naysayers
• Read a Few, Good Books
• Create Something Simple
• Try out a Lean, Lightweight Framework
• Build Something Awesome
• Get Involved and Be Up to Date

There's also some good comments with suggestions of other frameworks to learn, things to try out and a few comments that put an emphasis on learning the language before diving directly into a framework.

On NetTuts.com today there's a new article suggesting twenty ways that you can "save kittens" by following their helpful tips to learn PHP.

There's an old adage - dating back to the 1700s - which, in English, says: "A kitten dies each time a PHP programmer doesn't follow best practices." Okay, not really; but just go with it! Getting started in PHP can be a daunting experience. With that in mind, these 20 tips will teach you how to follow best practices, and save lives...kitty lives.

Some of their suggestions include:

• Program as Often as You Possibly Can
• Take Advantage of the Huge Online PHP Community
• Make Code Self-Documenting
• Add a Comment to Anything You Had to Think About
• Learn Docblock and Use It
• Don't Obsess Over Performance
• Don't Be Too Proud to Change

Check out the full article for the complete list.

Richard Smaizys has a new post to his blog with a few simple tips you can follow to help improve your code's style and readability.

So you have to know and you can not forget that your program (not only websites) is like a living beast with whom many people might work in the future. Your code is like your art piece which sometimes need editing, renewal and etc. You can not just think that you will always be the person who manages everything and supports all the bugs. By understanding this you also agree that the code must be maintainable and readable not only for you after a year or two but to other people that may not be so skilled or advanced and otherwise.

He covers two things in this post (there's this other about brackets) - tabs versus spaces (or hard vs soft tabs) and a bit more on braces, specifically about the same line/next line debate.

Have some code style tips of your own or just want to discuss Richard's suggestions? Leave a comment on the post!

Thinking about trying your hand at submitting a talk to an upcoming PHP conference but aren't exactly sure where to get started? You might want to check out Lorna Mitchell's suggestions on some of the steps.

Speaking at conferences is a great way to share ideas and meet people - but actually getting the opportunity to do is a little more tricky and usually involves proposing a talk. [...] If you want to go to a conference, and there is a topic you'd like to share some thoughts on, then write them down and submit!

She talks about making the most of the submission form - submitting your abstract and including details why you and your talk should be selected for their conference. The comments include a few other suggestions like "don't submit the same one talk over and over", "try for something different" and remember that you always have something to contribute.

Ilia Alshanetsky is asking the crowd for comments in his latest blog entry, specificalyl about the new filter extension coming in the next major PHP 5 series release - version 5.2.

What I am interested in hearing is are there any other common types of data collected by PHP forms that would be worth while adding filters for into the extension. My own suggestions would be the phone (US/EU formats) and postal/zip code validators.

Comments on have already been made ranging from date validation improvements to input validation. Head on over and add your own comments/ideas to the mix...

In an effort to create a higher level of discussion on PHP than just the "why is this erroring?" or "how do I get PHP to..." questions, Davey Shafik has started a new channel over on the Freenode IRC network to futher talks about PHP and not just fixing other peoples errors.

The goal of the channel is to foster talks about topics such as design patterns, emerging PHP concepts, working on the bleeding edge, and new ways of doing old things. The channel is already set up and running smooth with users constantly around (though they might be just lurking), so come on over and join in.