The Case for Generics in PHP

By Chris Holland

Having worked with generics in other languages, I was very grateful and thrilled to come across this RFC, as I could immediately see the tremendous benefits this would bring to the PHP ecosystem. Let’s look at how they might fit within the evolution of PHP’s type system to put us in a position to write more robust software.

• Read PDF

Maintaining Laravel Applications

By Jason McCreary

As the creator of Laravel Shift I have a unique insight into Laravel applications. I’m super sensitive about sounding like a sale pitch. So, I don’t want to talk about Shift itself. I want to talk about the data derived from Shift and how that can be used to help you write more maintainable Laravel applications.

Getting Started With Php? Let’s Start the Right Way!

By Junior Grossi

Maybe you’re here because you’re just beginning with PHP, or maybe you worked with PHP some time ago and would like to catch up. Perhaps you’re used to your way of working with PHP and haven’t adopted the newest additions to the language. There are many changes and the language is still improving. Let’s go back a bit in its history.

How to Knock Down Any Project in Ten Steps

By Paweł Lewtak

In this article, I’ve collected my experience with failing IT projects along with some real-life examples and observations. Hopefully, you’ll learn from my mistakes, so you don’t have to repeat them.

The Dev Lead Trenches: The Talk

By Chris Tankersley

About the only thing that makes me upset as a lead developer is people that do not play ball. I am completely for questioning authority, asking questions about workflows, and having ideas on making what we do work for everyone, but it really bugs me when someone doesn’t even try to work with the team.

The Workshop: Producing Packages, Part Two

By Joe Ferguson

Last month we started building PHP Easy Math, a small library which can be included in PHP projects to provide simple methods to do basic addition and subtraction. We’re using this as an example library to focus on what makes a library “good” we are less worried about the practical need for and usage of our package. In this part, we look at why you should provide a license and good documentation for your package.

Education Station: The Day the Internet Died

By Edward Barnard

The more things change, the more they remain the same. We’re taking a 30th Anniversary Tour of the Morris Worm. We’ll find that the same attacks and defenses remain in use today. It behooves us all, as modern software developers, to understand our history.

Security Corner: Five Risks to Look for In a Code Review

By Eric Mann

Development teams use code review as a way to keep track of one another’s progress on issues and tasks in the work queue. Code reviews are also a stellar way to proactively detect and address security concerns before they become critical to the success of the project.

Community Corner: Leveling up

By James Titcumb

The tech industry moves at an incredible pace. Libraries, tools, and best practices change frequently, and keeping up with things can be hard. In this issue of Community Corner, I’ll explore a few different avenues you can use to learn more and level up your skills.

finally{}: The Seven Deadly Sins of Programming: Sloth

By Eli White

This month I touch on the sin of sloth in programming. I mean, I don’t want to. I want to go flop on the couch and watch some TV and relax. However, I’ll avoid the sin itself and manage an article this month.