As you may or may not know, Sitepoint.com has a podcast each Friday, and just a few weeks ago Tim (the Managing Editor for PHPMaster.com) was kind enough to be interviewed. Given that he knows pretty much everything about PHP, I highly recommend sparing the 20 minutes to take a listen.

It’s public speaking time and you’re the next one up! In this article you’ll learn why presenting PHP can be beneficial, who can present about PHP related topics (hint: it’s not just the experts!), and what you can do to make your presentation stand out when you finally decide to present.

PHP development is hot right now, but there are also lots of people in PHP development. If you want to make it as an independent PHP developer you’ve got to know more than just PHP. These six skills are essential for most freelancers, but if you’re a PHP developer they may be even more so.

Some of us write unit tests, others don’t. Indeed, it’s important to test common usage, situations of improper usage, and rare events. But it’s also important to write your tests pragmatically, using functional (acceptance) tests for application’s behavior, and unit tests for internal APIs.

It’s amazing how sometimes the most perplexing problems have a simple and elegant solution. This particular solution may not be for everyone, but it worked well enough for the problem at hand, and hopefully by sharing it will encourage you to think creatively to solve your own day-to-day problems.

A search for a product or service should begin with checking simple but essential qualities in a large set and then looking for refinements in those that pass the first test. Read this article to see how PHPMaster author J Armando Jeronymo chose his PHP editor.

In 1994, Rasmus Lerdorf wanted a simpler way to display his résumé to Internet users and monitor traffic too it. Now PHP drives some of the world’s biggest websites. Throughout its history, users have sought new ways to increase PHP’s performance and still take advantage of the ease of development it brings.

What really makes the PHP community stand out is the people who share their knowledge and who are more than willing to help others along their journey with PHP. The community in huge and is growing every day, and it’s all about sharing. What can you do to make a difference?

You’re crazy if you haven’t taken advantage yet of SitePoint’s limited-time launch special for PHP Master: Write Cutting-Edge Code. If you’re a PHP developer who’s ready to hang up your novice hat for good and become a professional, then this is definitely a book you need! The topics covered in the book, from OOP to Quality Assurance, will help you to ratchet up your skill level and become an awesome coder.

Standards are important! Industry experience has proven that establishing standards and adhering to them yields better production results and make day-to-day life easier. Not only do they affect the programmer’s ability to create quality code, but they also ensure anyone else who may contribute code later can do so with a reasonable expectation of consistency.