On the "Riding an Elefant" blog (for the Elefant CMS) there's a new post that looks at some of the "challenges, efficacy and attitude" of the PHP-FIG (Framework Interoperability Group) surrounding their PSRs and general direction.

First, I should state that I’m not a member of PHP-FIG. I applied to be a member representing the Elefant project, but saw projects with similarly-sized communities rejected, so I wasn’t surprised at the lack of response to my application. However, I do agree with the general goals of the project and think it has a lot of potential if steered well.

He then spends a good bit of the post talking about the three PSRs (autoloading with PSR-0 and coding standards with PSR-1 & PSR-2) and how he thinks the PHP-FIG has some "public relations" issues they need to overcome as it relates to their reactions.

PHP-FIG has grown rapidly since its inception, and with that comes the need to reevaluate and adapt. The PHP community is huge, and a group hoping to represent even a substantial minority of it will have to practice diplomacy and clearly state its intentions if it doesn’t want to be misunderstood or cause alienation amongst the wider community.

There's also some good comments on the post so be sure to check those out too.

In this new post to his blog, Stefan Koopmanschap shares some of what he thinks both the PHP language and the PHP community need right now to help make things better overall.

Today, a riot fight strong discussion happened on Twitter regarding PHP. Some guy forked PHP and made some changes to it, then released his package on his own site. Some of the improvements were clearly just to please his own taste, others were definitely useful additions. The discussion following all this was interesting. Not just the one on Twitter, but I also got a more lengthy response through e-mail. While responding to that, I thought I'd write a blogpost as well to offer my 2 cents on what I think PHP needs.

He gives a little background first, both on his involvement in the PHP project and on the event (the original post about the "PHP fork" that was released on github of PHP 5.3.2) and the PHP community's response to it. Stefan goes on to suggest a few things he things he thinks might make for a better reaction in the future like curbing the attitude problem that some community members show, the tone of negativity that shows on the internals mailing list, some of the public statements by core PHP devs and some suggestions on better project management.

He also suggests two other more community-related things to consider: having a "community manager" role that might help keep things in check and a way to help make contributions easier (too many steps in the process right now).

Michael Babker has a new post to his blog talking about how recent opinions might be the death of Joomla! and how, unless things change, it could take its toll on the project.

It's quite obvious that the state of Joomla! is not one of stability, as evidenced by recent threads on the Joomla! Bug Squad. Threads such as Help in admin menu, Thanks but no thanks, and The purpose and tone of the bug squad list all demonstrate that there is a severe rift between the leadership and the community, and within members of the community as well. Simply put, now is not the time for the Joomla! community, especially the volunteers of the Joomla! Bug Squad, to fall apart.

In his opinion, the Joomla community can't continue to function like this without causing the project to collapse under itself. Pushing away the new developers just wanting to help and putting egos ahead of good contributions only hurts things.

The Joomla! Project CAN NOT go on in this state. Chasing away the volunteers will not do anything productive. Putting your own ego before the collective Joomla! ego will not do anything productive. Not having an open mind will not do anything productive. And being overly offended by the use of a certain term by a non-English speaker certainly will not do anything productive. Change needs to happen.

Marcus Whitney has chimed in on Tim Bray's comments about PHP in his latest blog post.

PHP has arrived. Tim Bray posted on PHP and it's got the web all hot and heavy. I know that plenty of people like to take these opportunities to flex their blog muscles and tell off all the other languages, proclaim their programming expertise and explain why all those using certain languages are dumb as hell. Greg Beaver has already done a good job of pointing out why this is a waste of time so I wont repeat what he said.

So in short, here's the deal. PHP is getting hated on because she is the prom queen. Rails in the new contender, and Java is last year's hot stuff. All three are valuable languages that provide many an over-paid programmer with the tools needed to wow their co-workers. Pick your weapon and go to town.

He's basically of the same concensus that others stated - it's not about how good one language is overall, it's about what works for you in the situation you're in. It's almost impossible to find a langauge out there that's a perfect fit fo everything.

Marcus Whitney has chimed in on Tim Bray's comments about PHP in his latest blog post.

PHP has arrived. Tim Bray posted on PHP and it's got the web all hot and heavy. I know that plenty of people like to take these opportunities to flex their blog muscles and tell off all the other languages, proclaim their programming expertise and explain why all those using certain languages are dumb as hell. Greg Beaver has already done a good job of pointing out why this is a waste of time so I wont repeat what he said.

So in short, here's the deal. PHP is getting hated on because she is the prom queen. Rails in the new contender, and Java is last year's hot stuff. All three are valuable languages that provide many an over-paid programmer with the tools needed to wow their co-workers. Pick your weapon and go to town.

He's basically of the same concensus that others stated - it's not about how good one language is overall, it's about what works for you in the situation you're in. It's almost impossible to find a langauge out there that's a perfect fit fo everything.