On PHPFreaks.com there's a new tutorial providing a beginner's guide to debugging in PHP (with the built in functionality PHP has, not external software).

Everyday the forums see probably hundreds of topics posted where the problem is a fairly simple error. [...] As a beginner, it can be difficult to find and solve these errors. By tackling each of these in turn, I hope to teach you some methods of finding and solving them.

They look at the different sorts of errors - syntax errors, fatal errors, warnings, notices - as well as some of the ones a bit harder to track down like database problems and logical errors.

On the Mindoop blog, there's a new post talking about some of the issues that the Zend Framework could cause with the SEO for your site - a simple reason, really.

Zend framework is becoming a first choice framework for a large percentage of PHP developers. It's native support for advanced URL routing makes implementing search engine optimized URLs a breeze. Or not?

Because of the reserved words for the controllers and the multiple ways to access the actions below it (his example is case_studies, case-studies and case)studies) make three different ways to get to the same content - a SEO no-no.

CakePHP users can find a quick hint from The Bakery today pointing out how to get ride of some of the warning messages when working with the framework in PHP4.

CakePHP - a great framework, but sometimes surprising to those who are used to programming with PHP 5. EclipsePHP spits out pages and pages of warnings when compiling towards a PHP 5 base, scaring new CakePHP converts.

The method involves performing a global search and replace on seven key strings to help them conform to the CakePHP standards. The warnings will "magically" disappear following.

Pierre-Alain Joye notes today that there were some issues with the PEAR HTML_Template_IT package he's a lead programmer for.

You can either check out the HTML_template_IT homepage for more or just grab it directly.

This should be well known, and people should be aware as to why they are using either or. But, I've noticed lately that a lot of people new to PHP or programming are not aware of the difference. Depending on what you need you, need to decide what the differences are.

It's a short post, but for someone just getting into PHP, it's some handy information to have. He looks at both functions and gives what they're good for. He does throw in a few caveats, though - including an issue with parse errors in included files pre-PHP 4.3.5...