Recently the Xdebug PHP debugging tool turned 15 and PHP community member Cal Evans wanted to do something special for the author, Derick Rethans. He started a secret fundraiser to gather contributions from all around the community and used the funds to purchase Derick several bottles of his favorite beverage. In this new post to his site Cal shares some about XDebug, Derick and a video of James Titcumb presenting Derick with his present.

There are a handful of tools that have actually changed how many of us code PHP. XDebug is one of those tools[1]. There is no doubt of the impact that XDebug has has on PHP developers and PHP projects.

Recently, XDebug turned 15. This means that the man responsible for XDebug, Derick Rethans, has been supporting XDebug for 15 years, for free. [...] So on this the (close to) anniversary of this product, many of us in the PHP community decided to do something to show Derick how much we appreciate it. Those that know him know that Derick loves a good Scotch. So we decided to buy him some.

Cal has the video embedded in the post (or here on YouTube) and offers thanks to the people and groups that helped to make the project successful.

The CakePHP Group has released a little holiday present to the developers out there - two new versions of their framework - versions 1.1.12.4205[1] and 1.2.0.4206_dev[2] - packaged and posted to the CakeForge website.

CakePHP 1.1.12.4205 is a bug fix release for the stable branch. Read the changelog[3] for more information on what has been updated. CakePHP 1.2.0.4206_dev is the next major version with several new features.

Of course, the second is a development release, so use it at your own risk in production. They include updates that were made to the 1.2.x series including:

• There is a new Validation class that replaces the old Validators.
• (FormHelper) Is much improved and extended. Bake yourself some new views using the latest code.
• (EmailComponent can) send some emails in plain text, html, or both.
• (SecurityComponent) now supports HTTP_AUTH through var $requireLogin.

The CakePHP Group has released a little holiday present to the developers out there - two new versions of their framework - versions 1.1.12.4205[1] and 1.2.0.4206_dev[2] - packaged and posted to the CakeForge website.

CakePHP 1.1.12.4205 is a bug fix release for the stable branch. Read the changelog[3] for more information on what has been updated. CakePHP 1.2.0.4206_dev is the next major version with several new features.

Of course, the second is a development release, so use it at your own risk in production. They include updates that were made to the 1.2.x series including:

• There is a new Validation class that replaces the old Validators.
• (FormHelper) Is much improved and extended. Bake yourself some new views using the latest code.
• (EmailComponent can) send some emails in plain text, html, or both.
• (SecurityComponent) now supports HTTP_AUTH through var $requireLogin.