Biting the Distributed Development Bullet

Will Code for FoodLike most development n00bs, after I started using version control, I never looked back.  And neither should you.

It required me to change the whole way that my office operated, though.  See, the way that we were doing things before seemed so simple; we just edited files and shouted at each other if we collided in our editing.  As it turns out, this was a bad thing, and there have been better alternatives around way longer than I’ve even been in this business.

But like most crotchety, over-egotistical developer-types it took a while for me to come around.  Here’s a brief history of my flirtations and eventual commitment to version control.

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Teaching PHP: Course Curriculum

php-sauceThe problem, succinctly stated, is: How do you best organize 14 weeks of study to teach PHP to a group of motivated College students?

I know they must be pretty motivated, because they’re signing up for the class despite the fact that it starts at 8 am.

This Fall, I will  be teaching a course in Web Application Development at FSU.  The topic will be server-side scripting, and the focus will be PHP.  Since I’ve taught this course before, developing the curriculum won’t take months, but I am nevertheless spending a fair amount of time updating and tweaking for the next go-around.

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CodeIgniter Preflight Checker

preflight_checkIn my last post, I discussed do’s and don’ts for making a PHP application portable. This week, I will show you how to create a preflight checker in the CodeIgniter PHP framework to ensure that an environment will support your application.

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Making PHP Applications Portable

portable_computer_guy“Portable” means that your application is able to run on any PHP webserver with minimal fuss.

Ensuring portability is an absolute must for programs that are packaged and distributed for public consumption, like WordPress or MediaWiki.  But, you should aim for portability in all of your applications.  The ideal is a one or two-step installation process and only two or three system requirements:  1. Webserver (IIS/Apache/etc), 2. PHP v5.X+, 3. MySQL 4+.

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