The Laravel podcast, hosted by Matt Stauffer with regular guests Taylor Otwell and Jeffrey Way, has posted their latest episode today - Episode #32: Adam Wathan Is Strong

In this episode, the crew discusses simple code, staying focused, Adam vs. The Hulk, and coding music.

You can listen to this latest episode either through the in-page audio player or by downloading the mp3 of the show. If you enjoy it, be sure to subscribe to their feed and follow them on Twitter to get updates on the latest episodes as they're released.

On the Fortrabbit.com blog today they have a post where they share what they see as the 10 Pillars of PHP Development. It's a set of ten things they see as the most important to consider in a developer's work.

For most of us PHP developers writing applications now compared to ten or so years ago is quite a different endeavor. [...] This has changed in recent years. Classical web sites are becoming more and more the domain of specialized SaaS. [...] So web developers changed themselves by specializing and concentrating on what cannot be automated so easily: web applications. Along with this came a new mindset on how PHP development should be done and what tools should be used.

Their list of ten includes both generic topics (with a few subtopics for explanation) and specific technical items like:

• Code management
• Tests
• Dependencies and modularization
• Runtime data
• Deployment

Check out the rest of the post for other "pillars" in their list and explanations for each.

On the SitePoint Web Blog there's a recent post by George Fekete with a few suggestions about how to be a good developer, regardless of the language or technology you're using.

As a PHP developer, or any kind of developer as a matter of fact, you need to constantly improve yourself in this ever-changing industry; you need to learn and use new knowledge every day. What successful developers have in common, is that they care about programming a lot, they are professionals treating good programming practices as a form of art. In this article, you’ll learn about how to be a better developer by following the “etiquette” of programming and you’ll learn how to use this information to perhaps teach others to better themselves.

He starts with some tips about "being professional" overall that include things like being responsible and having a strong work ethic. Then he moves into writing good code. This isn't about actual code examples, more about good practices and tools. He also shares some tips about how to keep things (and yourself) on track and tips on how to "be a master" when it comes to social interactions and the work you're doing.

In a new post to his site Lukas Smith wonders what's next for Symfony2, the popular PHP framework. Rather than the actual framework, though, he looks at the framework community and wonders where they should direct their attention.

Avid readers of my blog might have noticed a theme in recent blog posts. A while ago I noted that core developers of the early days have become a lot less active. Then I posted about the need to start working on higher level code to make Symfony2 more rapid development friendly. Following this post I blogged about what is missing to make Symfony2 truly great for building REST APIs. Now last evening at DrupalCamp Vienna I was asked what is there left to do for the Symfony2 community and it didn't take me long to think of an answer: Bundles!

He talks about some of the current ecosystem around the framework's major bundles and wonders where people should be focusing. Are there bundles that should be worked on more, building up features and providing a more solid core group of developers (than maybe one or two)?

Ben Ramsey, an organizer of the PHP Community Conference, has written up some of his thoughts about the recent rise of "community conferences" that's been happing in the PHP community (and other communities around the world).

The PHP world is exploding with community conferences. In fact, web development technologies in general are seeing a wide range of community-driven conferences springing up around the world. I think there are many reasons for the proliferation of these conferences, and in this post, I present my opinion on how this trend came to be, along with a definition of what I think constitutes a technology-focused community conference.

So you're sure wat he means by "community conference" he offers a definition that has less to do with the content of the event and more to do with the group putting it on. These community conferences are organized by the community for the community and are usually people already established. He also mentions the "unconference phenomenon" and how it seemed like a precursor to the community conferences. He points out a few other criteria that make it "community".

Several conferences are mentioned both in the post and in the comments: PHP Community Conference, True North PHP, CodeConnexx, CoderFaire and others (not mentioned) like Lone Star PHP, North East PHP, Midwest PHP and many more.

Matthew Weier O'Phinnney has a new post to his blog filling in some additional details behind a series he's been doing on modules in the Zend Framework v2 releases. In this new post he answers the question "why modules?"

I've blogged about getting started with ZF2 modules, as well as about ZF2 modules you can already use. But after fielding some questions recently, I realized I should talk about why modules are important for the ZF2 ecosystem.

He covers some of the history of the idea, starting with the MVC rework/refactor of the framework and the desire from several people to have self-contained components that could be native to a ZF app. ZFv1 made it work (kinda) with Zend_Application, but it was difficult so solving this became a main focus of ZFv2. He illustrates with a "building block" metaphor based on his current blog site (currently being refactored too).

This kind of building-block development makes your job easier as a developer - and allows you to focus on the bits and pieces that make your site unique. As such, I truly feel that modules are the most important new feature of ZF2.

In an opinion piece posted to the php|architect site Marco Tabini suggests that we (as developers) are doing it wrong as we move further and further away from the pragmatic side of programming into the abstract.

No matter how advanced the techniques that we use, there is always something that we could be doing better. [...] Which one is right? The real problem is that the answer to that question is, “yes.” That’s because it lacks a specific context in which it can be inserted.

He suggests that, in our quest to figure out what the perfect case for any situation, we stop focusing on the practicality of writing applications to accomplish goals. Sometimes it's not about getting the right theory behind the code - sometimes it's just doing it.

Justin Carmony has written up a new article about something every developer (and/or development business) struggles with when hacking away at their code - keeping what the clients want in mind.

Why does it seem so hard to deliver quality products to clients? Sometimes it feels like clients either don’t appreciate quality, or they have their priorities all mixed up. [...] These seems rather obvious, but in-fact many developers get caught up in quality and then are totally surprised when their clients aren’t happy. Why? Because as developers we notice and respect quality a great deal more than suitability.

Part of the problem is that clients don't care about the quality behind the scenes. Most of the time, they just want to see results and don't really care how it was done. He focuses on one thing that can really help you in dealing with these clients - keeping up with that their needs are, not just assuming. This includes a few more specific tips:

• Meet the Client
• See the Need
• Open Communication
• Frequent Client Feedback
• Usability Testing

Jonathan Snook points out a new take on working with tags on a site - a focus cloud.

With this fairly broad classification I set about working out exactly what a Focus Cloud should show. To me the name could only suggest one thing. It shows the area which currently is receiving the most Focus! [...] So a Focus Cloud should show not what has been the most popular tags overall, but what is the most popular tags at present. What is your current focus.

The post not only includes the theory behind these focus clouds but also has some PHP code to back it up (using the del.icio.us interface and tags as the foundation of the cloud's contents). The full code for the cloud can be grabbed here.

Jonathan Snook points out a new take on working with tags on a site - a focus cloud.

With this fairly broad classification I set about working out exactly what a Focus Cloud should show. To me the name could only suggest one thing. It shows the area which currently is receiving the most Focus! [...] So a Focus Cloud should show not what has been the most popular tags overall, but what is the most popular tags at present. What is your current focus.

The post not only includes the theory behind these focus clouds but also has some PHP code to back it up (using the del.icio.us interface and tags as the foundation of the cloud's contents). The full code for the cloud can be grabbed here.