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Xdebug 2.0 released

PHP

Hmmm. First PHP application programmers start GoPHP5.org, then the php core team announces the EOL for PHP4, then namespaces get added into PHP6, and now Xdebug 2.0 is finally released. It’s not quite the precambrian, but it’s definitely been a busy few days!

Xdebug, for those of you who prefer to debug PHP code using echo and var_dump(), is a bloody lovely zend extension for php that lets you get proper debugging information for when stuff goes pear-shaped (excuse the pun). From the official announcement:

It is finally here, Xdebug 2.0.0 has arrived! After about four years of work I finally found it ready to release. Have fun! After almost four years of work, Xdebug 2 is finally ready. With improved functionality and many new features it is ready to totally change the way you develop in PHP.

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Top twelve IT skills

General

Spotted over on SysAdmin’s Diary, a reference to an article in Network World Asia entitled 12 IT skills that employers can’t say no to.
It’s an… interesting list:

  • Machine learning
  • Mobilizing applications
  • Wireless networking
  • Human-computer interface
  • Project management
  • General networking skills
  • Network convergence technicians
  • Open-source programming
  • Business intelligence systems
  • Embedded security
  • Digital home technology integration
  • .Net, C #, C ++, Java — with an edge

Good grief.
Sometimes you have to despair. Let’s take a slightly less naive gullible buzzword-friendly analysis-free look at that, shall we?

Machine learning
Not machine learning, the AI field with years of development and reseach, but how to construct SQL statements to extract data efficiently from large databases.
Mobilizing applications
WAP. And HTML for small screens. And common sense about how to do UI on small screens.
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More on PHP5 adoption

PHP

Matthew Mullenweg isn’t terribly impressed with GoPHP5 or the php-internals people on the whole topic of dropping PHP4 and moving on to PHP5 and PHP6. Now, given that Matt’s the guy who founded WordPress, I reckon his opinion’s worth listening to, and given how much time I spend using vim, LaTeX and mutt, I know where he’s coming from; but he’s wrong in this instance, or at least, he’s looking at it the wrong way.

See, the difference between PHP4 and apps like LaTeX or vim is that, well, LaTeX is done. As in, it works, it’s bug-free (no, seriously, it’s as bug-free as it gets outside NASA, and a bit more so on occasion), and it does everything that its users require it to do, and well.… Read the rest

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