Jeremy's Blog

(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.