(Repost from Privett on PHP)

My response to this comment (comment link no longer available) ended up getting too long for a comment. It would’ve just been overlooked. So, let me take a minute to clarify.

Stefan is the only individual I called out, because he set himself up to be called out. And “chips on my shoulder” come from watching PHP slowly get replaced in companies, because of the belief that it’s not ready for Enterprise-level development. And you want to know why? These very antics by the aforementioned people. I’m here, because I want PHP to succeed in the realms that it’s failing in. Yeah, Enterprise development using PHP has been on an uptick, but it’s been SLOW. And there’s plenty of things that Zend and the PHP Group can do to fix this.

The fact of the matter is, something needs to change, somewhere. And as unlikely that it is that anyone in the PHP Community is going to listen to someone calling them out on their faults, it’s got to be done. If someone doesn’t realistically say “Hey, this is a problem. You need to fix it.” everything is going to stay the way it is, and PHP is going to continue to drag its feet behind other languages, in the enterprise.

That’s why I commend Stefan for what he does in the Community, but highly disagree with the tone in which he uses to do it. He was called out because he IS pretty much the reason that PHP is as secure as it is, today. And that’s something that we do not, as a Community, want to lose. But, as long as he keeps pushing against the community in the ways that he does, the Community is going to instinctively push back. That’s not getting to solutions, it’s only causing more problems.

But, he is not the underlying problem, either. Zend and ALL of the PHP Developers need to step back, take a long look at what’s been accomplished and where they want PHP to go, and decide on a REAL plan. Not this haphazardly doing things as it’s interesting or whenever I feel like it. They have the power to do it, it’s just whether or not they want to do it.

Also, I’m not here to incite problems within the community. Everything I’ve said has been pretty much constructive criticism, and not intended to be taken negatively. “Is PHP Doomed?” was a question, not a statement. And probably too strong of one, as I went on to say, later. Of course PHP’s not doomed. It has a long way to fall before it could be considered doomed. But, if it did start that descent, I hope the PHP Group and Zend would be able to fix whatever mistakes were being made to get it back up to where it needed to be.

And if you do want to keep using PHP, in the future, “Letting them do what they want” isn’t an option. As the community behind the language, we all need to step up and let them know that they need to take some serious time, get their hands out of the code, and resolve some of the issues that keep causing problems. Whether it be communication errors, errors in leadership, etc. The PHP Community is HUGE, and if we were to all speak in unison, we WOULD be heard. It’s all about whether you intend to sit idly by while more problems keep cropping up, or take a stand to help better the language that you love.

And I commend Stefan Esser for taking that stand. I just wish he’d stand with an attitude that wasn’t so demeaning and “be the better man”, as cliche as that is.

(Repost from Privett on PHP)

Stefan Esser of the Hardended-PHP Project released a patch for the Reference Counter Overflow vulnerability that was disclosed during the Month of PHP Bugs.

Just reading the title of the entry through my Live Bookmarks in Firefox, I can’t help but think “Thank you, Stefan, for fixing a security vulnerability in PHP and making the language that I love that much more solid and secure.” — Okay, maybe that was a bit of an exaggeration, but it needs to be said that Stefan Esser does do PHP a good service through finding and reporting these kinds of vulnerabilities.

The problem with that is the fact that any good service he does to the language is completely nullified by his attitude towards the PHP Developers and Zend. The chip on his shoulder is not helping the PHP Community. This type of behavior is no better than that I mentioned in my previous entry, by the PHP Developers themselves.

I know he’s got his reasons for having issues with the developers, and if everything he’s constantly ranting and raving about is indeed true, all the more reason to have issues. But do not lower yourself to their level, if that’s the case. Constantly and consistently belittling PHP Developers and Zend Employees, whether on your blog or in the PHP Internals list itself, does not make you any better than them.

This very behavior is part of the reason why PHP isn’t floating as well as other languages is the sea that is “the Enterprise” — You show businesses these kind of antics, and they immediately look to more outwardly stable communities, like Python for example. Or .NET. Like Rich Zygler said, “Besides, what kind of arguments do the internal devs in Redmond have over .NET? Oh that’s right. We aren’t really privy to that information.”

If you aren’t friendly and supportive to your fellow developers, what makes you think Enterprise-level businesses are going to think you’ll be friendly and supportive to them?

You want to know why PHP isn’t suitable for Enterprise development? Because, no one is showing Enterprise-level standards. Until you get the proper respect with regards to yourselves and each other, don’t whine and cry that businesses are picking .NET or Java over PHP for their Enterprise development.

Integrity is doing what you know is right, even when you think nobody is watching.

(Repost from Privett on PHP)

As an outsider looking in, and being a realist instead of a fanboy, I’m finding it extremely hard to believe that PHP is going to continue its much hyped and proclaimed success in its current circumstances.

For example, I think if some of the tiffs that occur on the PHP Internals were ever widely publicized, PHP really wouldn’t have a future. It’s sad to realize that I now watch the Internals Mailing List for comic relief and not real information.

I want to know when the PHP community turned into this huge pissing contest. Some of the egos that are just dripping off of these developers are intoxicating. If it’s not one thing, it’s another.

As much as I hate to say this … You guys really need to take some advice from Ruby Devs. I’ve been watching the Dev List over there and following it as well, and I don’t see even half of the virtual crap-flinging that’s almost become an everyday occurrence on the PHP Internals list. Get a clue, guys. If you don’t start working together, your project will ultimately fail, or you can walk away and quit so we can get better people to replace you.

I’m not calling out any names, because there are some genuinely good people that work on PHP, but I think the general populace of egotistical people that generally initiate the pissing matches know who I’m talking about.

… if they even read this.

Hundreds of perfectly legal, paid for songs, completely unusable. Computer went toast. So did all of the music I bought from online stores like Napster and iTunes. None of it will play in Linux. DRM is lame.

(Repost from Privett on PHP)

As if it were a (pseudo) answer to my prayers, something very interesting came down my RSS Feeds, today.

Zend is apparently holding a survey on PHP IDEs. Downside? In their list of source control systems to support within the survey, they neglected to mention Seapine’s Surround SCM. Gah, just when I thought that they were possibly going to implement the missing features to make my life so much easier.

Oh, well. Maybe, they’ll at least get the Unit Testing support right.

I think I’ll take Paul Colton (thanks for your comment!) up on his offer to submit my requirements for a PHP IDE …

The previous entry was Ruzena reacting to my overreacting. Things really aren’t as bad as I made them out to be, to her. It’s just a simple matter of moving with the times. Personally, I really want to continue using PHP. If that’s not what happens, fine. I’ll move forward and do what I have to do to be successful.

I scared her a bit, because I was scared. I didn’t really know what to think about some of the things I was hearing and it freaked me out a little. Of course, I share everything with her, so it scared her too.

One of the things that makes me happy about her entry is the extra emphasis that was given to the fact that we are a team. She and I do things together and we’re always there for each other. We take care of each other and will continue to do so, as time goes on.

Of course, I also like that she’s thinking about the future and considering the family we hope to have and how all of this will have an effect on that, too. But, everything will be okay. Things really aren’t as bad as I thought. It’s just my state of depression, at the time, was amplifying things to make them seem a lot worse than they really were.

Thanks for being there and taking care of me, sweetheart. It really means a lot to me.