14 ms·

PHP Weekly improvements

64 points by inovica 13y ago

raveren 13y ago
The news are nice, but the RSS feed is terrible - but a headline.
- inovica 13y ago
  Thanks. We'll improve that
adventured 13y ago
Don't be afraid to make the text here: http://www.phpweekly.com/archive/latest.html http://www.phpweekly.com/archive/latest.html larger, and expand the width of the layout some. If you're going to leverage a simple layout like that in which the text is the sole focus, you might as well go a bit larger font size.
- inovica 13y ago
  Hi and thanks for the suggestion. As this is an archive from the email itself thats why we used that width.
inovica 13y ago
Hi there. We posted about PHP Weekly last week and we had some really good suggestions from people - mainly about how we'd not done a great job explaining what we are doing!! Took all the suggestions on board and added in an image, latest issue link as well as archives. We've also added in an RSS feed, but I note the comment (on here) about the RSS feed being terrible. Sorry, we'll work on that.
- RossM 13y ago
  Thanks, I must have missed it last week. Looks like a much more readable alternative to phpdeveloper.org (which has too many automated posts imo).
quackerhacker 13y ago
>Dealing with Duplicated Code Anyone notice the duplicate topic under Tutorials and Talks "Offline Processing in PHP with Advanced Queuing," just gave me a little chuckle when one of the articles is dealing with duplicated code. Aside from this, I LOVE PHP. A prospective employer was asking if I would be open to learning RoR. Anyone who is experienced on Rails, could you let me know if it's a similar structure as PHP (which I'm great at)? Thanks.
- inovica 13y ago
  You spotted the deliberate mistake - erm. Whoops. Thanks for pointing that out!
- nkozyra 13y ago
  As Rails is a framework and not a language, it has a much more specified "structure." Syntactically, the languages are not all that similar. It's probably closer to Python. As much as people abhor PHP in programming communities (and I get that sentiment), I find RoR to be a far, far worse platform to build upon.
  - jiggy2011 13y ago
    What do you find worse about RoR? Compared to whichever PHP framework.
    - fooyc 13y ago
      Ugly monkey patching everywhere, open classes, insecure by default (e.g. mass assignment), global states, model classes easily too much tied to a single controler, active record pattern, ...
      - rbanffy 13y ago
        It's interesting. Much of what I think is beautiful about Ruby (and Python, and Objective C, and Smalltalk) is what people who like PHP consider ugly. I, myself, and it's a matter of taste, find PHP (and most of the code written with it) ugly. There is no objective measurement for ugliness.
Treffynnon 13y ago
Have you seen Wes Mason's PHP Weekly newsletter: http://phpweekly.info http://phpweekly.info? Is this intended as a replacement?
- inovica 13y ago
  Hi there. We'd actually been running this as a weekly news list for some time (we'd owned the domain for years) via a PHP-related product that I also run. We decided to open this up wider based on seeing the Python Weekly one, as we're also fans of Python. Someone pointed me to Wes last week and I dropped him a line and we have exchanged some friendly emails between us. I need to pick that up again after being away for nearly a week.
rbanffy 13y ago
After reading the linked http://www.phpclasses.org/blog/post/208-5-Reasons-Why-the-Web-Platform-War-is-Over-PHP-Won-with-75-says-Google.html http://www.phpclasses.org/blog/post/208-5-Reasons-Why-the-We..., I have to wonder why people still think their favorite technology must "win".
- kbenson 13y ago
  It may be a response to the PHP hate that's common. PHP is very popular, so an end run around technical merits may be alluring to those that don't know how to argue the merits, can't find enough merits to argue, or are just looking for a quick way to draw in the large audience of PHP users that are looking for validation in their choices.
  - prollyignored 13y ago
    For all the hate given to PHP, I still can't understand why the cool-elite-rockstar-ninja-sexy-hot-hackers of python/ruby/java/go/haskell/clojure/S*t can't come up with half-as-dumb replacement for mod_php and compete with it on its own terms. Good variable names and documentation are infinitely more important than new shitty frameworks or do vs "{" vs "\t".
    - vec 13y ago
      Because mod_php is one of the main things that said hackers don't like about PHP. 1 file to 1 url does not scale to even small blogs, and using mod_rewrite to handle routing is both more complicated and less powerful than port forwarding to an app server and letting it handle urls in application code. I always hear people say this, but I've used both a fair bit and `rails s` plus port forwarding is an order of magnitude easier than fighting with apache's vhost config.
      - frenchy 13y ago
        > 1 file to 1 url does not scale to even small blogs, I suspect you are aware of this, but using URL parameters it is quite easy to make multiple urls map to the same file (i.e. `/foo/?abc=123` and `/foo/?abc=234`).
runnr_az 13y ago
I really like the Javascript Weekly / HTML5 Weekly newsletters... since I'm (theoretically, anyway) a PHP dev, this will be a nice addition.
JoeKM 13y ago
Thank you for this. I'm not fond of PHP, but I don't know it as well as Ruby and Python. Still, I like to read about new technologies concerning PHP. I use HN to discover new stuff, but HN is a poor resource concerning PHP. HN has tremendous vocal disdain for PHP. Every PHP thread transforms into "Why I like or dislike PHP" instead of actual discussion regarding new technologies or libraries. What's worse is the debates feel like I've warped 10 years past because there is nothing ever new to them. People complain about the old things of PHP and never talk about the new things. Put simply, even though I don't know PHP that well I feel like maybe it has potential and can actually do good in the right hands, but HN brainwashes you into thinking PHP is the worst.
- PommeDeTerre 13y ago
  Professional software developers who care about creating secure and maintainable applications that perform well will, by necessity, be very hesitant to use or recommend the use of PHP. It has a very poor track record when it comes to security flaws, for example. It is also rife with inconsistencies and unjustifiable oddities throughout the language itself, and its standard library. Factors like those then promote the development of software that is of an unacceptable quality. There do happen to be many extremely experienced software developers here at HN, and we won't hesitate to point out the flaws with various technologies, including PHP. This is not a bad thing; it's quite good. It's extremely important to be vocal about low-quality technologies. These days, there are just so many alternatives that are far superior to PHP in every respect. Even with its new features, PHP is still not an acceptable option. So we shouldn't be looking for positives where there just aren't any, nor should we be surprised when all we find are negatives.
  - maratd 13y ago
    > Professional software developers who care about creating secure and maintainable applications that perform well will, by necessity, be very hesitant to use or recommend the use of PHP. Nonsense. As the most widely deployed platform it has absolutely massive exposure and security flaws are fixed quickly. Don't confuse poor practices by newbies with platform security and stability. > It has a very poor track record when it comes to security flaws, for example. It does not. > It is also rife with inconsistencies and unjustifiable oddities throughout the language itself Every language has its warts. What's your point? > These days, there are just so many alternatives that are far superior to PHP in every respect. Yeah. Don't blame the tool. Blame the craftsman. And a craftsman who spends quite a bit of time complaining about the tools others use ... well ... you can fill in the rest.
gee_totes 13y ago
Since you seem to be taking suggestions, could you add "overflow:hidden;" to the main div (#home)? On Firefox 3 the site appears about 4000 pixels wide.
- inovica 13y ago
  Will do! Thanks for this

64 points by inovica 13y ago

raveren 13y ago

The news are nice, but the RSS feed is terrible - but a headline.

inovica 13y ago
Thanks. We'll improve that

adventured 13y ago

Don't be afraid to make the text here: http://www.phpweekly.com/archive/latest.html http://www.phpweekly.com/archive/latest.html larger, and expand the width of the layout some. If you're going to leverage a simple layout like that in which the text is the sole focus, you might as well go a bit larger font size.

inovica 13y ago
Hi and thanks for the suggestion. As this is an archive from the email itself thats why we used that width.

inovica 13y ago

Hi there. We posted about PHP Weekly last week and we had some really good suggestions from people - mainly about how we'd not done a great job explaining what we are doing!! Took all the suggestions on board and added in an image, latest issue link as well as archives. We've also added in an RSS feed, but I note the comment (on here) about the RSS feed being terrible. Sorry, we'll work on that.

RossM 13y ago
Thanks, I must have missed it last week. Looks like a much more readable alternative to phpdeveloper.org (which has too many automated posts imo).

quackerhacker 13y ago

>Dealing with Duplicated Code Anyone notice the duplicate topic under Tutorials and Talks "Offline Processing in PHP with Advanced Queuing," just gave me a little chuckle when one of the articles is dealing with duplicated code. Aside from this, I LOVE PHP. A prospective employer was asking if I would be open to learning RoR. Anyone who is experienced on Rails, could you let me know if it's a similar structure as PHP (which I'm great at)? Thanks.

inovica 13y ago
You spotted the deliberate mistake - erm. Whoops. Thanks for pointing that out!
nkozyra 13y ago
As Rails is a framework and not a language, it has a much more specified "structure." Syntactically, the languages are not all that similar. It's probably closer to Python. As much as people abhor PHP in programming communities (and I get that sentiment), I find RoR to be a far, far worse platform to build upon.
- jiggy2011 13y ago
  What do you find worse about RoR? Compared to whichever PHP framework.
  - fooyc 13y ago
    Ugly monkey patching everywhere, open classes, insecure by default (e.g. mass assignment), global states, model classes easily too much tied to a single controler, active record pattern, ...
    - rbanffy 13y ago
      It's interesting. Much of what I think is beautiful about Ruby (and Python, and Objective C, and Smalltalk) is what people who like PHP consider ugly. I, myself, and it's a matter of taste, find PHP (and most of the code written with it) ugly. There is no objective measurement for ugliness.

Treffynnon 13y ago

Have you seen Wes Mason's PHP Weekly newsletter: http://phpweekly.info http://phpweekly.info? Is this intended as a replacement?

inovica 13y ago
Hi there. We'd actually been running this as a weekly news list for some time (we'd owned the domain for years) via a PHP-related product that I also run. We decided to open this up wider based on seeing the Python Weekly one, as we're also fans of Python. Someone pointed me to Wes last week and I dropped him a line and we have exchanged some friendly emails between us. I need to pick that up again after being away for nearly a week.

rbanffy 13y ago

After reading the linked http://www.phpclasses.org/blog/post/208-5-Reasons-Why-the-Web-Platform-War-is-Over-PHP-Won-with-75-says-Google.html http://www.phpclasses.org/blog/post/208-5-Reasons-Why-the-We..., I have to wonder why people still think their favorite technology must "win".

kbenson 13y ago
It may be a response to the PHP hate that's common. PHP is very popular, so an end run around technical merits may be alluring to those that don't know how to argue the merits, can't find enough merits to argue, or are just looking for a quick way to draw in the large audience of PHP users that are looking for validation in their choices.
- prollyignored 13y ago
  For all the hate given to PHP, I still can't understand why the cool-elite-rockstar-ninja-sexy-hot-hackers of python/ruby/java/go/haskell/clojure/S*t can't come up with half-as-dumb replacement for mod_php and compete with it on its own terms. Good variable names and documentation are infinitely more important than new shitty frameworks or do vs "{" vs "\t".
  - vec 13y ago
    Because mod_php is one of the main things that said hackers don't like about PHP. 1 file to 1 url does not scale to even small blogs, and using mod_rewrite to handle routing is both more complicated and less powerful than port forwarding to an app server and letting it handle urls in application code. I always hear people say this, but I've used both a fair bit and `rails s` plus port forwarding is an order of magnitude easier than fighting with apache's vhost config.
    - frenchy 13y ago
      > 1 file to 1 url does not scale to even small blogs, I suspect you are aware of this, but using URL parameters it is quite easy to make multiple urls map to the same file (i.e. `/foo/?abc=123` and `/foo/?abc=234`).

runnr_az 13y ago

I really like the Javascript Weekly / HTML5 Weekly newsletters... since I'm (theoretically, anyway) a PHP dev, this will be a nice addition.

JoeKM 13y ago

Thank you for this. I'm not fond of PHP, but I don't know it as well as Ruby and Python. Still, I like to read about new technologies concerning PHP. I use HN to discover new stuff, but HN is a poor resource concerning PHP. HN has tremendous vocal disdain for PHP. Every PHP thread transforms into "Why I like or dislike PHP" instead of actual discussion regarding new technologies or libraries. What's worse is the debates feel like I've warped 10 years past because there is nothing ever new to them. People complain about the old things of PHP and never talk about the new things. Put simply, even though I don't know PHP that well I feel like maybe it has potential and can actually do good in the right hands, but HN brainwashes you into thinking PHP is the worst.

PommeDeTerre 13y ago
Professional software developers who care about creating secure and maintainable applications that perform well will, by necessity, be very hesitant to use or recommend the use of PHP. It has a very poor track record when it comes to security flaws, for example. It is also rife with inconsistencies and unjustifiable oddities throughout the language itself, and its standard library. Factors like those then promote the development of software that is of an unacceptable quality. There do happen to be many extremely experienced software developers here at HN, and we won't hesitate to point out the flaws with various technologies, including PHP. This is not a bad thing; it's quite good. It's extremely important to be vocal about low-quality technologies. These days, there are just so many alternatives that are far superior to PHP in every respect. Even with its new features, PHP is still not an acceptable option. So we shouldn't be looking for positives where there just aren't any, nor should we be surprised when all we find are negatives.
- maratd 13y ago
  > Professional software developers who care about creating secure and maintainable applications that perform well will, by necessity, be very hesitant to use or recommend the use of PHP. Nonsense. As the most widely deployed platform it has absolutely massive exposure and security flaws are fixed quickly. Don't confuse poor practices by newbies with platform security and stability. > It has a very poor track record when it comes to security flaws, for example. It does not. > It is also rife with inconsistencies and unjustifiable oddities throughout the language itself Every language has its warts. What's your point? > These days, there are just so many alternatives that are far superior to PHP in every respect. Yeah. Don't blame the tool. Blame the craftsman. And a craftsman who spends quite a bit of time complaining about the tools others use ... well ... you can fill in the rest.

gee_totes 13y ago

Since you seem to be taking suggestions, could you add "overflow:hidden;" to the main div (#home)? On Firefox 3 the site appears about 4000 pixels wide.

inovica 13y ago
Will do! Thanks for this