This article explores if and how these two different concepts can coexist in the PHP ecosystem. –by Helgi Þormar Þorbjörnsson

Quality assurance is an ever-increasing area of concern for software developers. While testing is a large and very important part of that, it is only one of several quality metrics. Great software must not only function, but be readable and understandable by human beings. In the lifetime of the average application, a significant amount of time and cost will go toward maintenance that is rarely limited to the application’s original author. To maximize maintainability, code must be consistent, intuitive, predictable, and well-documented. A coding standard is one tool that can contribute toward accomplishing these goals. –by Matthew Turland

Adobe and Zend recently announced their partnership in the new Flash Builder 4.5 for PHP, providing a seamless experience, end-to-end. Flash Builder 4.5 will even be able to handle debugging for all your platforms – desktop, IDE, server-side PHP and device – all in one roundtrip debugging session. –by Arturo Alvarado

Have you ever searched the web for “Best Practices in PHP programming”? It is amazing. While some of the advice considered a “Best Practice” is actually funny, others are just plain wrong. Let’s look at a few of the gems being offered up as “Best Practices” to the PHP community and why they may be of less value than you think. –by Cal Evans

Continuous Integration is a buzzword that we hear more and more these days. The process is very hard to implement in practice, either because of lack of understanding and support from management or because of ignorance and reluctance on the part of the development team. However, with a little bit of training and increased visibility of the overall code quality across the business, you can overcome this. While I can’t help you with the training, I can definitely show you how you can make your code speak for itself. –by Sebastian Marek

Fixing bugs can be easy. Keeping bugs fixed over the lifetime of your software can be hard. That’s why Zend Framework (ZF) comes with unit tests and guidelines on how to use these when fixing bugs. ZF’s project lead Matthew Weier O’Phinney wrote a convincing article about fixing bugs in the September 2009 issue of php|architect. While building and running unit tests to prove you fixed a bug is a rock solid way to demonstrate the quality of your work, it can be quite a challenging task. I decided to start this column to encourage everyone to take up the challenge and try for themselves! –by Bart McLeod

Nothing beats the face-to-face communication found at conferences, unconferences and user group meetings. –by Stefan Koopmanschap

We at php|architect have long felt that there needs to be a way to recognize projects that have had an impact on the lives of PHP developers. –by php|architect

Being paranoid means more than just discussing features and their implications. It also includes developing with a “need to know” concept in mind. –by Arne Blankerts

If you find yourself coming across something that challenges your preconceived notions on a technology topic, you should always pay attention. –by Marco Tabini

Learn more about html_entity_decode() –by Elizabeth Tucker Long

Why aren’t schools teaching PHP? –by Elizabeth Tucker Long