Archives
June 23, 2006
Co-written by the guy who invented PHP (Rasmus Lerdorf,) this is a must-buy book for anyone getting into PHP or web programming in general.
What can I say; this book is so well written and to the point, that I found that the information seemed to just flow from the pages.
Who is this book for?
This is not a book for someone just learning how to program; it is for everyone else though.
Both programmers new to PHP, or PHP programmers with (at least) a basic understanding of PHP, will find this book to be very handy to have around.
The book does not try to cover everything about PHP… though it does cover things like:
- graphics
- xml
- pdf
- databases
… instead it gives the best coverage of the core language I’ve ever read.
Buy the book.
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June 23, 2006
A small book that takes a critical look at Java and other languages (Ruby, PHP, ) at a moment in time.
I say ‘at a moment in time’ because this book will lose relevance very quickly – even more quickly than the typical nerd book.
In a nutshell:
- You get a brief history lesson on languages and their problems.
- You get a perspective of the problems that Java developers face.
- You get perspective on the subject from interviews with several big-wig names in the field.
- You get an overview of Ruby and Rails.
My complaints:
- The author likes to introduce his chapters with kayaking stories that are suppose to reflect what he is about to talk about … I would just skip those parts because I am not into kayaking.
- Question of accuracy: he mentions (page 174) that PHP does not have enough structure. This is a silly statement given that there are SEVERAL PHP frameworks out there that provide the exact same structure as Rails – some even copy Rails.
Conclusion:
I liked the book and it was a worthwhile read. It has a few problems but it does open your eyes to things.
That said, the title of the book should have been: ‘Beyond Java and why I love Ruby’.
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June 23, 2006
Ruby For Rails connects the dots between Ruby and Rails.
In a nutshell:
This book looks at how Rails uses Ruby, and in so doing, you learn a heck of a lot about Ruby programming.
Ruby For Rails goes into detail about basic Ruby, enough so that I think someone new to Ruby, could learn enough about the language to be able to build web applications. But, the book is not a comprehensive Ruby reference – there are things that are not talked about.
The thing I really liked about the book, is the way the author introduces a concept and then shows you how Ruby or Rails implements that concept in a practical application.
For example:
You are introduced to a Ruby construct called a ‘module’*.
- You learn what a module is.
- Why Ruby has modules.
- How Rails uses modules and why.
I am glad to have this book and think anyone interested in learning Ruby and /or Rails, should get it.
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* Ruby modules are programmatic constructs that are like classes (they have methods and constants,) but they are not directly instantiated like a true class.
Instead, modules are created to be inserted into to classes or objects to give the host class or object the extra functionality. Often modules are referred to as ‘mix-ins’ because modules are mixed in to classes.
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June 21, 2006
I have to tell you, that this blog spamming is really getting out of hand – I even get dozens of Chinese spam clogging my blog every day. In total, I must get 200 / day!
Besides being annoying, blog and message-board spamming are next to useless, in terms of promoting websites …
Will they ever learn?
Answer: No.
There must be a way to fight back as we did against email spam. But how can we mount a counter-spam-attack on the spammers?
Geocities Jerks
One common tactic for spammers is to set up Geocities websites and then try to get people to visit them … Geocities has to come up with some better policing of their system.
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June 8, 2006
The Internet is buzzing these days about the emergence of what people call ‘Web 2.0’. It’s important for web designers to understand what this is, because it affects all web design.
IN A NUTSHELL: Web 2.0 is a combination of factors/elements that leads to a much more social, interactive Web. Here is a short list of some of the key elements that make Web 2.0 possible:
- AJAX allows for the rise of the truly ‘rich’ Web user experience: web pages that act like desktop programs … no need to refresh entire pages to see new content on the page.
- Auto-syndication (sharing of content) via RSS/XML feeds – and software that allows you to easily create and access these XML feeds.
- New ways to mass-communicate over the Web – podcast (mp3) and video.
BLOGS GOT THE WHOLE THING GOING
Blogging tools like WordPress and TextPattern got the whole thing going: most blogs automatically create RSS feeds.
Blogs also make it easier than ever before, for people to write content for the Web. No need for Web design software like FrontPage or Dreamweaver and no need to know HTML.
As such, there has been an explosion of content creation of the Web: people are writing like crazy! The three points to take away from this is:
- Blogs make it simple to (essentially) create web pages.
- Blogs automatically syndicate/share content via RSS.
- Blogs make it easy for readers to interact with blogger’s (the authors,) via a built-in system that allows people to make comments … the social aspect enabled.
WEB 2.0 IS MORE THAN JUST BLOGGING
Another major characteristic of Web 2.0 is the remixing and combining of information from many different sources.
For example:
A Web 2.0 web site may grab many RSS feeds and massage them into a new filtered presentation. The advantage is that users can now access this information from one spot, instead of having to visit many different sites.
CONCLUSION
This (automated) sharing and mixing of content/information (between people and websites,) along with ‘rich’ Web user experience is Web 2.0.
… and you thought it was something more!
🙂
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May 31, 2006
More and more web designers are interested in taking the jump into learning how to build database driven websites.
These days, the language of choice is PHP (with some adventurous nerds jumping into Ruby,) because it is easy to use, easy to learn and is very popular.
Regardless of what technology/programming language (PHP, ASP, JSP, Cold Fusion) you use to build database driven websites, there are some (common) basic concepts that have to be understood before you can move forward.
…
In the following video tutorial, I explain to the difference between server-side programming (PHP, ASP etc ..) vs. client-side programming – JavaScript, VB Script etc …
Video: Server-side programming vs. Client-side programming
PS: after you watch this video, you may want to take it to the next level and actually learn PHP.
Stefan Mischook
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May 30, 2006
by: Kevin Tate
Review by Richard Mischook
This book will of some interest to anyone who has ever worked on a team developing any sort of sophisticated software. By sophisticated I mean relatively feature-rich and developed with the expectation of a reasonably long shelf life. By the latter though, I don’t mean a static shelf life; rather a dynamic one where it is expected that the software will need to grow and change in response to the evolving needs of the customer.
Getting to the Point
Sustainable Software Development starts with a strong argument as to why building software cannot and should not be viewed as analogous to building buildings, despite the propensity of many to see things that way. For one thing buildings are not expected to change over time in response to changing requirements (not drastically anyway).
Software on the other hand in an increasingly dynamic business climate must be adaptable to change. In fact change must be relatively easy to accomplish with a low risk of breaking existing functionality. Thus sustainable software development is somewhat different from purely agile development, even if the former borrows heavily from the principles of the latter. Sustainable software must develop the software that the customer needs, and be capable of changing as the needs of the customer change.
The Core of the Book
This book is a great read. It uses numerous small examples to illustrate its point, examples that certainly were quite familiar to me. The causes of unsustainable development were covered in some detail. The meat of the book went into a series of practical and unambiguous practices and principles designed to foster long term sustainable development. In addition to discussing software methodology, the author recognizes the cultural issues (as in corporate culture) that need to be addressed to foster a sustainable software development environment.
Synopsis
This book is a great read even for those who may already be familiar with one of more schools of agile development. It left me charged up and wanting to rush into the office and put these ideas into practice. Highly recommended.
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May 16, 2006
NOTE: SEO is the acronym for: ’search engine optimization’. This is the process of making your web pages more search engine ‘friendly’ by tweaking code and content.
Choosing a proper domain name can have a huge impact in terms of how it affects your positions in the search engines and your overall traffic.
THE 3 CRITICAL FACTORS
- The domain name should contain key words.
- The domain name should be as short as possible – easy to remember and easy to type in.
- The domain name is slightly better off as a .com over say a .net, org etc …
1. KEY WORDS IN YOUR DOMAIN NAME
No one knows the exact algorithms that the search engines use to determine who ranks higher. But you can learn a lot when you have several websites that get a lot of traffic …
One thing I have discovered over the years, is that keywords in a domain name do have a serious impact as far as the search engines are concerned. That said, MSN seems to hold it as being more important than the other 2 major search engines: Google and Yahoo!
The point is that you should start your SEO (search engine optimization) work BEFORE you even register your domain name. Try to choose a domain that contains a good keyword.
2. SHORT DOMAIN NAMES ARE EASY TO REMEMBER
I think this one is obvious … if your domain name is:
www.fantabulousefluffyregistereddogs.com
… chances are people will have a hard time remembering it! Instead something like ‘www.fandogs.com’ would be much better.
3. WHY ARE .COM DOMAINS BETTER?
Less to do with search engines and everything to do with the fact that most people will type in ‘.com’ before .net or anything else.
For that reason alone, try to register a .com before anything else.
Stefan Mischook
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May 16, 2006
Head Rush AJAX targets web designers who have a basic understanding of JavaScript.
A couple of points:
- A great book for beginners.
- This book is not well suited for experienced Web programmers because the pace is probably too slow.
Using clever layouts and graphics, along with an easy to understand writing style, Head Rush AJAX makes AJAX very approachable for web designers.
WHAT IS AJAX
AJAX is essentially the combination of technologies (JavaScript, DOM, CSS) built into all modern browsers that allows you to create web apps that act like (from the users perspective,) desktop applications – the so-called ‘rich user experience’. AJAX is used to send data to and from the server, and then display it in a web page, in a seamless way.
AJAX is typically coupled with a server-side technology like:
The server-side languages/environments are used to grab data (say from a database like MySQL) and then hand it off the to AJAX scripts. Wisely, Head Rush AJAX uses PHP as the server-side language to play this role*.
*PHP was the best choice because most web designers are going to jump into PHP over any other language because PHP is easy to learn and is ubiquitous.
HOW THE BOOK TACKLES AJAX
By starting with simple concepts and examples, the book gently takes the reader from humble beginnings to (by the end of the book) where the reader should be comfortable creating AJAX based websites.
Some highlights:
- Great examination of basic concepts.
- Good tutorial on DOM scripting – a key component of AJAX
- Nice comparison between AJAX with XML vs. AJAX with JSON – a lightweight JavaScript data format
Probably the best web designer centric book on AJAX.
Stefan Mischook (Web Design Heretic)
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May 9, 2006
With all the buzz about Ruby these days (because of the web application framework ‘Ruby on Rails’) Zend (the people who manage PHP) are feeling the pressure.
Nerd Note: a ‘web application framework’ makes creating databased driven websites much easier because the framework takes care of a lot of the ‘dirty’ work that you would normally have to build yourself.
As far as Zend is concerned, PHP is not getting its’ fair share of attention even though PHP is:
- Much more available than Ruby – in terms of hosting.
- PHP is a widely used and a proven language with big sites like Yahoo, Digg and Flickr using it.
- PHP is easy to use and easy to learn.
As I mentioned above, Ruby’s recent rise has been largely due to the web application framework ‘Ruby on Rails’. So in response to this, Zend has developed their own framework called: Zend Framework.
Along with the Zend Framework, comes a nifty new web site. From the press release:
Future of Web Application Design Is Here and Looking Good
Varien, a web design and development firm, has redesigned the Web site for Zend Technologies’ PHP framework. Varien completed the redesign as part of an effort to reposition PHP as the cleanest and most simple programming language.
Los Angeles, CA—April 20, 2006—Varien has completed redesigning the Zend Technologies’ new PHP Framework Web site in an effort to make the Framework more accessible. The Framework is a powerful new tool for Web developers, providing a simple, standardized way to create powerful web applications using PHP.
The redesign was part of a broader effort to reposition PHP, which included designing a new logo for the Framework. By repositioning PHP Zend hopes to make the Framework and PHP more appealing to current Web developers and less intimidating to those looking to get into Web development.
“Here you have PHP, a programming language that runs Flickr, Wikipedia, Digg, and even Yahoo, and yet Ruby has become synonymous with the new Web,” said Ben Blumenfeld, the Design Director at Varien. “Hopefully this redesign makes Web designers and entrepreneurs take another look at PHP. With Zend’s Framework, PHP is now simpler, faster and more powerful than it has ever been.”
PHP usage has grown tremendously since PHP4 was released in 2000. However, PHP has recently lost some of its mindshare to the heavily touted Ruby on Rails, despite a huge gap in actual usage. (TIOBE programming community index)
The Zend Framework aims to provide a high-quality, commercial-friendly and open-source based solution for programming in PHP. Zend is excited about the Framework’s usability and knows the site redesign will help developers get the most out of the new technology.
“The coolness fact is also important in initially attracting Web developers and is complementary to the technology. The new look of our Web site enables us to build a more appealing perception of the Zend Framework,” said Andi Gutmans, the vice president of technology at Zend.
The Framework can be found at framework.zend.com. The redesign allows users to download the framework from the front page and highlights projects created using PHP in a section on the front page.
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WILL RUBY CONTINUE TO EAT AWAY AT PHP’S MIND SHARE?
This is the $64 000 question. But we have to consider one point: Ruby has capability that is widely used in Rails that PHP simply does not have; so can a PHP framework be as effective as Rails?
Nerd-minds want to know!
Stefan Mischook
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