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There are thousands of languages out there, but only a couple handfuls are used for web applications. Of these, PHP is a runaway success. Yet I constantly see it criticized by developers of other languages, often for completely untrue reasons.
Before code can be customizable, it must be clear. But clarity is not enough, if you're going to be using a codebase in multiple places.
Programming is an exercise in understanding a problem. To program effectively, you need to fully understand, in intricate detail, the problem your program is solving. Sometimes as a programmer you don't fully understand the problem until you've wrestled with it a few times in code.
Programming borrows a lot from the construction industry. Many programming terms derive from construction: hacking, builds, development, architecture, scaffolding, frameworks, and dozens of others. But in some ways, programming has an element of power beyond construction.
Continuing on the series, the next item on the list seems to be the mistake I see the most--putting slow code in loops, loading up things that don't need to be loaded, making simple requests expensive.
There are many articles that cover PHP vulnerabilities, but I've run across a lot of programmers and code that seems oblivious to them.
We're hiring programmers, over at Freelock. I've been going through lots code samples to try to identify how experienced and competent a particular developer is. I also do this on a regular basis to evaluate how solid a particular open source project is.
The first thing to ask is, why? Web sites have lots of reasons for existence, but for business purposes, we tend to see some combination of four motivations:
The first thing to ask is, why? Web sites have lots of reasons for existence, but for business purposes, we tend to see some combination of four motivations:
To act as an online brochure
To attract new customers from search engines
To sell things online
To build a community of people who might someday buy something from you
A web site can do any or all of these, but generally the further down this list you get, the more the site is going to cost in terms of development cost and your time.
Anyone still using SQL Ledger should be aware that new versions are no longer released under the GPL. When I wrote the book, and for several years afterward, SQL Ledger was the only game in town, and it's been the only viable open source financial web application for quite some time.
