Easy PHP Programming

PHP developers and industry leaders are holding this year’s Testfest 2009 in a few months to get people all over the globe to test and review the current RC for approval and review pending full release. Such public or community testing is standard of the many open-source developers who help each other to test out new features and past problems if they were addressed or not. Many of the detected errors would be addressed in the subsequent Full Release. The open-sourced community is made up of leading programmers, developer groups and even companies, all of which work together during testfest. (more…)

Or so they say, with them releasing the software development kit (SDK) for Azure, Microsoft’s cloud services platform. maybe they’ve wised up and have accepted they cannot stand alone in the fast evolving internet and computing industry, most of which have long shifted to open sourced platforms for their web needs. The SDK includes code samples and tools for developers so they can work with Silverlight and IE8, the next generation of browser they have for the long Internet Explorer line. (more…)

It’s only been awhile since PHP 5.2.8 was out and it’s in with the new and out with the old once more:

The PHP development team would like to announce the immediate availability of PHP 5.2.9. This release focuses on improving the stability of the PHP 5.2.x branch with over 50 bug fixes, several of which are security related. All users of PHP are encouraged to upgrade to this release.

The new PHP 5.2.9 has the following fixes and security enhancements:

* Fixed the security issue in imagerotate(), where the background colour is not correctly validated with a non true colour image.
* Fixed a crash regarding extracting in zip when files or directories’ entry names have a relative path.
* Fixed explode() behavior with an empty string that respects the negative limit.
* Fixed a segfault when malformed string is passed on to json_decode().

For more information, you can read more of the details of this latest PHP version here.

Say goodbye to the ‘ol 5.2.7. and say hello to 5.2.8.:

Due to a security bug found in the PHP 5.2.7 release, it has been removed from distribution. The bug affects configurations where magic_quotes_gpc is enabled, because it remains off even when set to on. In the meantime, use PHP 5.2.6 until PHP 5.2.8 is later released.

The PHP Development Team would like to announce the immediate availability of PHP 5.2.8. This release addresses a regression introduced by 5.2.7 in regard to the magic_quotes functionality, which was broken by an incorrect fix to the filter extension. All users who have upgraded to 5.2.7 are encouraged to upgrade to this release. Alternatively you can apply a work-around for the bug by changing “filter.default_flags=0″ in php.ini.

Take out 5.2.7. as soon as possible and use the newest one for security’s sake!

Source

Image source: www.basicphpprogramming.com

A programmer’s job requires him to keep his eyes focused on the glowing computer screen and keying in data by constantly pounding the keys of the keyboard. Programmers love what they do that it even makes them glued on their seats in front of their PCs which even they admit to be obsessive. But the consequence of their love affair with the computer is the painful overuse injuries that can keep them from doing their fist love—programming— and even simple tasks such as opening a mineral water bottle and turning the doorknob.
Repetitive Strain Injuries are acquired by the overuse of muscles and/or holding them in an unnatural position for a long time.
There are two common repetitive strain injury or RSIs are carpal tunnel syndrome and forearm tendonitis. If untreated, carpal tunnel syndrome can sometimes cause permanent nerve damage, and forearm tendonitis can harm muscles, tendons and ligaments that are essential for repetitive motion.
Standard keyboards require programmers to hold their hand in a fixed and unnatural position that can strain the forearms. Some computer tables may also be too high for them that when they key in data, their wrists are flexed which puts too much pressure on the median nerve. Constant pounding on the keys can cause tiny tears in the muscles and ligaments. In case no adjustments are made, this minor strain and discomfort can eventually lead into disabling injuries that can take months to heal. In some cases, even turning a doorknob produces extreme pain that is cause by hypersensinized nerves on the wrists.
Good news: RSIs are preventable and treatable. Regular breaks from typing, exercises concentrating on the hands, wrists and fingers, maintaining good posture in sitting and proper arm placement at the keyboard and a healthy workplace will go a long way towards preventing them.

Many web designers and programmers are in the look out for the latest PHP6. But there is no need to torture yourself for waiting that long. Everything that is expected to come out in PHP 6 can also be expected from PHP 5.3.
This will be such a good news for those programmers who want to use the new features, but their hosting providers are not yet ready for an upgrade to PHP 6 soon. Many companies will probably wait for 6.1 to be released before upgrading.
The new features offered by PHP 5.3 are namespaces, late static binding mysqlnd.