We are lucky to work in an industry that is in high demand. Never before has the need for programmers been higher in our world driven by the internet and revolutionary technology. Entrepreneurs are churning out startups, not just in Silicon Valley but all over the world. While the demand for developers does indeed fluctuate […]

The PHP community makes a big deal about user groups, and for a good reason. Meeting up with local peers and creating a network of people can be beneficial. Many user groups will have a talk most months which makes a nice talking point and a good opportunity to learn something new. The many PHP […]

I recently returned from another fantastic edition of the Dutch PHP Conference in the Netherlands, where I spoke to many people about open source software. In fact, every year they host a “Code Night” which encourages open source contributions, and they’re not the only conference to do this. If you’ve followed my column, you’ll already […]

Over the last few years, PHP has grown up and become a much nicer language to work with. The introduction of scalar parameter types, return types, and a host of other features has vastly improved the capability of the language, with more additions being discussed and thought up. But writing PHP applications isn’t just about […]

Most people are aware of how the Composer revolution came about, and the goal of getting everyone to play nicely together. For the most part, it seems to have worked, and more and more developers are coming on board with avoiding “Not Invented Here” and embracing the more than 1.2 million versions of packages available […]

The new kid on the block is this “serverless” technology. But what’s the fuss about? This new concept seems intriguing if only for the name, and has perhaps even garnered skepticism because of the name. I’m sure you’ve heard the joke “there is no cloud, it’s just someone else’s computer” before, but serverless appears to […]

When I founded PHP Hampshire, I had no idea what I was doing, nor what I was letting myself in for. That said, I had a great time learning the ropes, learning more about what people will expect of you, and crucially—meeting new people in the field. The core purpose of a user group is […]

There is a wealth of great advice on becoming a speaker. Speaking isn’t for everyone, but if you’re on the fence and wondering if it’s for you, my advice is to give it a go!

Open source software is the foundation upon which the web is built. Linux, Apache, NGINX, PHP, and all the libraries, many of the databases, and much of the software we use: it’s all open source software. What does that mean for us?

There is something unique about the PHP community. At first, you might not spot them but if you look a little closer, you might see there are a bunch of PHP developers with stuffed elephant toys on their desks, in their children’s toy boxes, or being looked after by their pets.