On the SitePoint PHP blog Larry Garfield, a member of the PHP-FIG group, has written up an article covering the past, present and future of the PHP-FIG. In it he tries to give readers a perspective on where the group came from, some of the growth they've seen along the way and, finally, the proposal for PHP-FIG 3.0 - a restructuring of the organization based on things they've learned so far.

The PHP Framework Interoperability Group (PHP-FIG, or just FIG for short) is at a crossroads. Many electrons have been sacrificed talking about FIG’s tribulations of late, but sadly much of it has been FUD, with little effort spent on the positive. At SitePoint’s invitation, I’d like to offer a more positive outlook on FIG and the PHP community, and demonstrate why FIG can, and should, continue to have a positive impact on the PHP ecosystem.

He starts with where the group began (an "uncomfortable beginning") at php[tek] 2015 and the proposal/passing of the PSR-0 autoloading specification soon after. He then gets into the "slow but steady growth" the group had over the next several years and some of the groups that became involved (not just framework projects either). He covers some of the other PSRs created/passed, the impact they've made on the community and the growing pains they've gone through. He ends the post talking about the PHP-FIG 3.0 proposal and some of the support, opposition and discussion that has come along with that.

The PHP Rountable podcast, hosted by Sammy Kaye Powers has published their latest episode - Episode #41: The PHP-FIG: Past, Present & Future.

The PHP-FIG has really helped the PHP community get onboard the collaboration train with really great standards like the PSR-4 autoloading standard and the PSR-7 HTTP message interfaces.

We discuss PSR-0 through PSR-13 and the process they go through to become standards. We also discuss where the FIG came from and the possible big changes coming to the organization soon.

This episode features a large group of guests, all related to the PHP-FIG in some way:

• Cal Evans
• Paul Jones
• Paul Dragoonis
• Chris Tankersly
• Evert Pot
• Samantha Quiñones
• Michael Cullum
• Matthew Weier O'Phinney

You can watch this episode either through the in-page video player or directly over on Youtube. Be sure to subscribe to their feed and follow them on Twitter for updates on when the latest episodes are being recorded and are released.

On the Symfony Finland blog they've posted a look at Symfony's past, present and future in terms of its structure and goals of stability and flexibility. This also includes some of the origins of PHP itself and how it evolved to the stage where creating framework made sense.

I like to think of modern PHP frameworks as glue to put together components to form something that is more than the sum of it's parts. [...] The Symfony Framework is a standard way (and framework code) to create applications using components. The application is always built with a specific structure, which allows code reuse of complete functionalities (Bundles in Symfony lingo) across projects. If you build using a collection of components, you'll need to invest time in learning how that software has decided to use the available components.

He talks more about the idea of components and how they make up a greater whole (like Symfony) and how they relate to the idea of "bundles". He then looks forward to the future of the framework, its long-term support and its work towards being fully PHP7 compatible.

The combination of the PHP language at 20 years and the Symfony framework at 10 years offers a stable platform with flexibility to adapt and grow in the future.

Michael Nitschinger has written up a post looking at avoiding nulls in your applications in favor of a better kind of value handling - the introduction of "Optional" handling.

While every developer has kind of accepted their existence, they are suddenly there when we'd desperately need them to not show up. How often did you writeif($obj === null) in your PHP code? Can't there be a better, more elegant and fault-tolerant solution to the problem?

His solution is to create a PHP version of this "Optional" functionality (via an abstract class) that allows some evaluation of the returned value from method calls on the object. Methods like "isPresent", "getOrElse", "of" and "fromNullable" make it easier to work with null values instead of just the triple-equals checking. He includes not only the code for the classes you'll need to implement it but examples of it in use - an "Optional" abstract class and two child classes, "Present" and "Absent".

As Danne Lundqvist mentions in a new post, there's a new post on the Gartner.com site about the past, present and future of the PHP language.

From the Gartner post:

I just published a research note on PHP. Clients can find it here. The research note goes into *much* more detail but the overview is [in the rest of the post]. Keep in mind that this content is targeted at mainstream IT organizations. PHP has been a cornerstone technology on the Web for more than a decade. While its adoption among mainstream IT organizations has been limited in the past, many corporate application development (AD) projects are discovering the unique benefits of PHP.

Danne highlights two quotes that were of particular interest in the report - one from the quote above about PHP being a cornerstone of many corporate web application development and the other talking about PHP's role not just in backend application development but also it being useful in front-end toolsets too.

Sebastian Bergmann has poted about a new something that he'll also be doing at this year's OSCON - leading a discussion about the emPHPower initiative.

As the PHP community grows however, it becomes harder and harder for people to come together from the various corners of the community. [...] That being said, maybe there is still something we could change for the better? PHP contributor Lukas Smith has formulated his vision for such an effort in the form of an organization that would serve as a mediator and catalyst between all the members of the PHP community under the code name emPHPower.

The session will be happening on Monday the 21st from 7-8pm.

Christian Wenz has pointed out an older post from Larry Wall talking about the line between scripting and programming languages (mentioning specifically PHP).

From the article "":

I think, to most people, scripting is a lot like obscenity. I can't define it, but I'll know it when I see it. [...] If I had to pick one metaphor, it'd be easy onramps. And a slow lane. Maybe even with some optional fast lanes.

Christian Wenz has pointed out an older post from Larry Wall talking about the line between scripting and programming languages (mentioning specifically PHP).

From the article "":

I think, to most people, scripting is a lot like obscenity. I can't define it, but I'll know it when I see it. [...] If I had to pick one metaphor, it'd be easy onramps. And a slow lane. Maybe even with some optional fast lanes.

Ben Ramsey has a reminder for those attending this year's Zend/PHP Conference & Expo (or maybe an incentive for those not yet signed up?) about the Unconference that will be happening in its own space where developers can come and present on their own topics.

When was the last time an event challenged your assumptions, and made you think? The PHP Unconference is a way to bring people who have a shared interest in PHP together. It could be just to explore interest in a common theme or it could be to do work together to accomplish a goal.

This year's chairperson is Patrick Reilly and they've posted some basic principles presenters will need to follow as well as a space on the wiki for topic suggestions or ones you'd like to present on.

You can learn more about this year's conference from the main conference website and stop by the zendcon channel on the Freenode IRC network to meet other attendees.

Ben Ramsey has a reminder for those attending this year's Zend/PHP Conference & Expo (or maybe an incentive for those not yet signed up?) about the Unconference that will be happening in its own space where developers can come and present on their own topics.

When was the last time an event challenged your assumptions, and made you think? The PHP Unconference is a way to bring people who have a shared interest in PHP together. It could be just to explore interest in a common theme or it could be to do work together to accomplish a goal.

This year's chairperson is Patrick Reilly and they've posted some basic principles presenters will need to follow as well as a space on the wiki for topic suggestions or ones you'd like to present on.

You can learn more about this year's conference from the main conference website and stop by the zendcon channel on the Freenode IRC network to meet other attendees.