GOTO in PHP? Is that possible? It turns out that it is. GOTO is poised to make its official debut in the upcoming 5.3 release of PHP—and the comments are flowing around the Net. We caught up with Sara Golemon, who introduced the construct in PHP, and with Timothy Boronczyk, who made one of the rare level-headed comments about its use, to shed some light on how GOTO will affect the world of PHP

The next CodeWorks speaker we’d like to announce is the incomparable Cal Evans! He brings so much to the CW table, both in terms of technical know-how and real-world experience. Cal will be with us for all seven cities of the tour, so read on to get a hint of what topics he’ll be covering.

Ed Finkler (aka Funkatron) will also be joining us for the second half of the CodeWorks tour. You’ll be able to catch up with Ed in Atlanta, Miami, Washington, and New York City. We are very excited to have Ed on board for CodeWorks; he brings 13 years of experience on a variety of PHP topics to our tour, and is an all around very cool guy. Keep reading to learn more about Ed’s background and what topics he’ll be speaking about.

Today, we’d like to announce that Sebastian Bergmann will be joining our tour for the full seven cities, as a part of our Tutorial Team. Sebastian brings to CodeWorks his vast knowledge of and experience in PHP unit testing, quality assurance and best practices. We are very happy to have him on our tour! Read on to learn more about Sebastian and what he’ll be speaking about.

Fourteen years ago, Rasmus Lerdorf released the first version of PHP. It’s been a long journey from there to where PHP Is today—with many bumps along the road, a few flat tires and some great scenery. The question on our mind, however, is this: how is the PHP community growing up and evolving?

We are thrilled to announce the first of our fantastic speakers for CodeWorks 2009! Derick Rethans will be joining us for all seven cities. Derick is a well-known and well-respected PHP expert who has spent years actively contributing to the PHP project and spreading his PHP knowledge to others. He will be speaking on the topics of Xdebug, date/time specifics, and improving your development process. We are very excited to have Derick on tour with us!

Our May issue, dedicated to the interesting world of Windows and PHP, is now available on our website and, thanks to a helping hand from Microsoft itself, the PDF edition is available for free to everyone!

We’re proud to introduce our newest and most exciting conference initiative yet: a touring series of two-day conferences designed to take a great community atmosphere on the road for a unique learning and networking opportunity. CodeWorks will visit seven different cities in the US from September 22 and October 5—and, with prices starting as low as $99 per attendee, there’s bound to be a conference near you that you don’t want to miss!