The Vertabelo site has posted a tutorial that gives you an "under the hood" view of ORMs and what they're doing in the background to help make accessing your database information easier.

It often happens that if something is loved, it is also hated with the same power. The idea of object relational mapping fits into this concept perfectly. You will definitely come across many opposite points and fierce discussions as well as unwavering advocates and haters. So if you have ever asked whether to use ORM or not, the answer “it depends” will not be enough.

They start with a definition of an ORM to get everyone on the same page, highlighting how they represent database contents and what some of the benefits are in using them. From there the article talks about the importance of good SQL and a few common dangers in using an ORM and not knowing SQL. Then the article gets into how ORMs work and some of the common design patterns they can implement. It lists some of the more popular ORMs (for Python, Java and PHP) and covers some of the main disadvantages to their use. The article ends with examples of some of the libraries mentioned, highlighting the Propel ORM for the PHP world.

In this new post to the PHPClasses.org blog Manuel Lemos talks some about the recent introduction of PHP into Google's App Engine offerings.

During Google I/O 2013 event a Google manager said PHP runs on 75% of the Web sites. So they decided to finally support PHP as in their AppEngine hosting service. Read this article to understand why this puts an end to years of false claims that PHP was losing market, as well what it means to Web developers using PHP or other languages.

He looks at the App Engine PHP offering and looks at whether or not its a good platform to use for hosting your application. He points out some advantages and disadvantages (including no local file system access and no remote resource access). He also includes five reasons why the "web platform war is over" and why PHP has come out victorious:

• Google Knows Because They Crawl the Whole Web
• Google Does Not Influence Web Developers so much
• Wordpress is the Dominant Blog Platform (not Blogger)
• Programming Does Not Have to Be Beautiful
• PHP Detractors Have the Wrong Focus

He admits, though, that PHP may not be dominant forever - it's not perfect, but there will always be a need for something that does what it can do (and does it well).

On the LearnComputer.com site there's a new post comparing the benefits/downfalls of online versus classroom learning of PHP development. They list a few advantages and disadvantages of each.

There can be many factors in the decision to learn PHP online or to take a class in-person, and for some, this can be a difficult decision to make. This article discusses the pros and cons of each method of PHP training to help you find the learning method that is going to suit your needs best. PHP isn't a new programming language, and there is a wealth of information on it on the web for every level of proficiency. The question is whether these resources alone are sufficient to get you up-and-running with PHP quickly.

For the "online" section advantages include flexible schedules and more up to date content. The disadvantages are things like a prerequisite knowledge of using computers/the training software and that the instructor might only have "set hours" to answer questions and offer help. The "classroom" option advantages include the motivation of a regular meeting time and fewer technology hurdles to overcome. Disadvantages include the need for a time/in-person commitment and that the focus might be higher level than needed to appeal to a more mass audience.

Doug Brown asks a question on his blog today that is coming up more and more, especially on those programmers new to the language that don't quite get what frameworks really have to offer. Do you really need a framework for writing PHP?

The simplicity in using PHP sometimes acts against it. Since there are very few coding restrictions, developers tend to write a bad code. The answer to this is definitely to use a framework. There are various PHP Frameworks available today like Zend Framework, CakePHP Framework and CodeIgniter. They provide a strong organization for your application and follow the commonly used MVC pattern.

To help out those new to frameworks, offers a few things they have to offer that normal procedural/library-based development may not. These include maintaining code standards, attractive URLs and getting help when you need it from other developers using the same system.

Justin Silverton has posted a comparison between PHP and Perl, with the first part coming more from the PHP side comparing it to Perl and the second the opposite.

He starts off with some of the differences between the two langauges, including that PHP was made for the web, Perl was not and that PHP scripts take less overhead for the web server to run that Perl scripts as CGIs. There are also four larger topics that he looks at:

• PHP has separate functions for case insensitive operations
• PHP has inconsistent function naming
• PHP has no lexical scope
• PHP has too many functions in the main namespace

All but the top item (that one could be argued either way) are reasons that a Perl user might cite against using PHP. For each of the items, there's a bit of description following to give you a better idea where they're coming from.

Justin Silverton has posted a comparison between PHP and Perl, with the first part coming more from the PHP side comparing it to Perl and the second the opposite.

He starts off with some of the differences between the two langauges, including that PHP was made for the web, Perl was not and that PHP scripts take less overhead for the web server to run that Perl scripts as CGIs. There are also four larger topics that he looks at:

• PHP has separate functions for case insensitive operations
• PHP has inconsistent function naming
• PHP has no lexical scope
• PHP has too many functions in the main namespace

All but the top item (that one could be argued either way) are reasons that a Perl user might cite against using PHP. For each of the items, there's a bit of description following to give you a better idea where they're coming from.