In an industry where you must keep learning, improving your skill set, and adjusting to new concepts and implementations, taking on new challenges that you are initially uncomfortable with is normal. Because of this, when John and I were presented with the option of taking over the operations of php[architect], we didn’t hesitate to jump at the opportunity.

It’s been a year since we made that decision, and we celebrated it by completely forgetting about it. It just kind of “occurred to us” that a year had passed.

As some of you know, the php[architect] magazine was established in 2002. I’ve been a regular subscriber since 2003. php[architect] has been essential to my life and career. I didn’t become a full-time developer until 2009. From 2003 until 2009, I subscribed to the magazine because I was interested in PHP, and there was no better source for what was happening in the PHP world. After I went full-time as a PHP developer, I continued using php[architect] as more of a continuing education source of information. Thanks to php[architect], I managed to build my skills to a level where I could make a living and eventually enough to build a company.

Similarly, php[tek] was my first language-specific conference. I had attended many conferences, from Google I/O to Salesforce, all on the dime of the company I worked at. I never saw the benefit of a language-specific conference, but I could not have been more wrong. Today, I honestly couldn’t express how much php[tek] changed my PHP trajectory. As a self-taught PHP developer, hearing from other professional developers about best practices, coding patterns, and solutions to problems was invaluable. You learn about things you don’t know you want to learn but are quickly happy you did. There’s the ability to sit down with those same developers, as well as other developers from a spectrum of companies and industries around the world, and discuss real-world challenges and solutions they are dealing with. Then there was the opportunity to speak directly with several developers of some of PHP’s heaviest used packages and frameworks. You would sit down for a cup of coffee, and across from you would be “the developer” who created the framework that thousands of companies were using every day.

The biggest thing I walked away from php[tek] with was the knowledge that I was a part of a community. The community became a large part of my PHP identity, and it’s because of that community I was so happy when we decided to bring php[tek] back in 2023. So yeah, if you didn’t know, now you do, php[tek] will be returning to Chicago, May 16th-18th, 2023. Follow the official Twitter handle @phptek and the conference website at http://tek.phparch.com to stay current on pricing, availability, and speakers.

Speaking of speaking, php[tek] 2023 Call For Speakers is now open. If you’ve ever considered writing an article for us or giving a talk at your local user groups, you should head over and submit your talk for consideration at php[tek]. Head over to https://cfp.phparch.com now; the magazine will be here when you get back 🙂 Also, Blind Earlier Bird tickets are now on sale. What is a “Blind Earlier Bird,” you might ask yourself? Well, it means you are purchasing your tickets without knowing who will be presenting, only that it will be awesome. Blind Early Bird is the cheapest tickets will be, even cheaper than the normal, plain, Early Bird ticket, so head over to https://tek.phparch.com/registration/ today and snatch them before they are gone. Once we start selecting speakers, there will no longer be Blind Early Bird pricing.

And now this month’s articles …

Our residential YouTuber, Scott Keck-Warren, returns to print this month with his feature article Finite-state Machines With PHP 8.1. Learn more about a Finite-state machine and how you can use it in your code. Also, if you didn’t know, Scott has been releasing short educational videos on the php[architect] YouTube channel. You should head over there after reading this issue and check them out. If you’re not a subscriber to our YouTube channel, think about subscribing. https://www.youtube.com/phparch.

Next, Andrew Woods wraps up his Vim series with Putting the You in Utility. Who says a Vim user doesn’t know how to quit? As a long-time Vim user, I’ve enjoyed Andrew’s contributions and have even learned a couple of things, like :set relativenumber! toggles relative numbers. This month Andrew shares some plugins you may find helpful in your Vim usage.

In Education Station, Chris Tankersly discusses Making Our Own Web Server: Part 1, where he starts a journey in building a “web server” in PHP. Not the PHP Development server that comes with PHP now, but a server that will respond to HTTP requests using PHP code that he is coding. Oscar Merida shares his solution Converting Float Strings in his latest PHP Puzzle Column. Make sure you check and see what Oscar’s next challenge is. Eric Mann’s Security Corner, Eric puts on his white lab coat, snaps on a pair of surgical gloves, and prepares you for your Cybersecurity Checkup. See what you need to know and what you should be doing to ensure you keep your online life and accounts secure.

DDD Alley continues its march forward on great Domain coding. This month Edward Barnard writes about Application-Event-Walkthrough and touches on the Application Event Command, Interface, Factory, and much more. This column is worth the cost of this month’s subscription itself. Joe Ferguson shows you how to cheat with his The Workshop submission, Cheating at SPA with Breeze & Inertia. Joe builds on the Laravel Framework with its inertia option and the Laravel Breeze package. Making a SPA has never been easier. Some people might call it “cheating,” but I think it’s working smarter. I pulled double duty this month with a rundown on Laracon Online 2022 in Artisan Way. Beth Tucker-Long wraps up this month’s issue with her piece, Beware: Tek is Disruptive, and looks back to the beginning of her journey. It’s an inspiring read.