In a new post to his blog Chris Roane has a few suggestions about advanced programming and what it might take to be considered an advanced programmer in any language.

On a previous post I had someone comment that they did not agree that the code implementation that was presented in the article was advanced (which was described in the title). They also claimed that I was not an advanced PHP programmer. This made me think. Not because my programming skill or knowledge was challenged. But because I’m not sure what makes code or a programmer "advanced".

He asks a few questions about the criteria for considering someone an "advanced programmer" including things like how fast or efficient they are, how much they make or the conference(s) they've been to. He points out that, because "advanced" is such a relative term, it's hard to put a finger on it. Being this hard to define (and mostly worthless even if it is) he suggests an alternative to trying to figure it out:

Instead of throwing around general terms in labeling code or other programmers, let’s come together and figure out ways in improving code together. Practical applications.