Vim is quite possibly the most powerful program ever written. Learn how to harness the power of Vim to improve your PHP development. –by Steve Francia

Over the last few years, PHP has left behind its hobbyist image as it has moved into the realm of web-driven enterprise computing. At the same time, early challenges of developing effectively in large programming teams have been solved with the adoption of version control systems such as SVN and Git. Until recently, however, there had been no easy way to reliably deploy a project from version control into staging or production environments, especially when dealing with server clusters or the cloud. Zend Server 5.5 easily solves this challenge, creating a basic package that can be dropped onto a staging server without any fuss or administrative hex work. –by Eric Ritchie

When the time comes to report on what your server has been doing, you’ll wish you had been logging. –by Rich Bowen

It’s not December, but it’s Christmas time for PHP developers. Once every couple of years, Santa Rasmus and his band of elves visits us because they have been cranking code like crazy. That time has rolled around again as PHP 5.4 was released this month. –by Cal Evans

There is a lot more to a conference than just sitting in a chair and listening. Make sure you don’t miss out. –by Stefan Koopmanschap

When fixing bugs, you want as many people as possible to enjoy your fix. If you can, you choose to fix a bug that is at least major or critical, if not a blocker. I said ‘if you can’, but there is nothing wrong with just picking some low-hanging fruit or, like I am going to do today, fixing something because it’s fun. Fun? Yes. The more you do it, the more fun it is going to be, but also, some bugs just make you think (at least they make me think): hey, I know where you’re hiding, I’m gonna get you… Read on if you want to know why I’m not. –by Bart McLeod

II get restless on vacation, so I decided to write something up on REST. HTTP is a true work of art; embrace it. –by Marco Tabini

Is your favorite IDE missing from this issue? Do something about it. –by Elizabeth Tucker Long