The CodeUtopia blog asks the online community for their opinion - what do you think of PHP as a first language?

Sometimes I've seen people say PHP is a bad first language, because it teaches bad programming habits. But is this actually true at all? Often those who say that don't really like PHP themselves either, many times because of equally untrue reasons.

They argue both sides of the situation, mentioning what could make for a good first language, why PHP is a "nearly perfect" fit for it and some arguing points for the other side as to why PHP isn't the best option.

David Goodwin has posted a book review of a book put out by Packt Publishing, "Object Oriented Programming with PHP5" (from Hasin Hayder).

After an email out of the blue from someone at Packt publishing, here's a review of "Object-Orientated Programming with PHP5" I don't think I've done a book review before, so apologies in advance if it's not structured in any logical manner.

He's broken it up into a few lists to make it very straight forward and easy to see if it's the book for you - the pros, the cons, the contents of the book and a random code sample (this one showing the Decorator pattern in action).

On the PHPKitchen, Demian Turner shares exactly how he managed to get the Zend Debugger up and working on his Mac Book Pro.

Okay, there is some considerable hacking involved to get this working, and the solution is only a workaround until "sometime before the end of 2006", which was quoted to me by Zend as the time they expect to get the Zend debugger working for the mactel platform. No rush there guys.

His solution involved using Parallels Desktop, Zend Studio, a hack on the installer to get it working, ensuring it finds the right php.ini (a problem he had) and customizing the setup to work with the buttons of your choosing.

On the Killersoft blog today, Clay Loveless has posted his decision about his development environment - choosing Komodo Pro over the Zend Studio.

A long time BBEdit user, I bit the bullet and (mostly) switched to Zend Studio back in November 2005. I was frustrated by Zend Studio's clunky Subversion handling, but within a few weeks was willing to put up with that for Zend Studio's great debugging environment and intimate knowledge of PHP that helps speed coding along on a line-by-line basis.

The switch to an Intel Mac broke Zend Studio's great debugger. Whoops! There went at least half of why I was using Zend Studio in the first place. Enter Komodo Pro. Komodo Pro 3 has supported Intel Macs for months. (Still no word from Zend on this issue.) Its debugging environment is based on the robust Xdebug extension.

He mentions that this is what he's working up his current project in, Mashery, with his own compiled version of XDebug integrated.

Komodo Pro lets me work the way I want to, with the tools (and versions of those tools) I want to use. Zend Studio, on the other hand, does not.

PHPBuilder.com has posted this new book review today, a look at a new offering from APress publishing - "Pro PHP, XML, and Web Services".

Since its release in 2004, PHP 5 has evolved to become stable enough for serious consideration in use in a production environment. Along the way, PHP 5 has seen more than a handful of tweaks and changes, especially in its overhauled support for XML and XML web services. Now that it is a stable, it is fitting that there be a reference on all things PHP and XML.

Enter Pro PHP XML and Web Services, which aims to be "your single source of reference when using XML in PHP".

The reviwer remarks first about the size of the book (of Biblical proporations) and how it seeks to "leave no stone unturned" when it comes to using XML and web services with PHP. The first chapters are a review of XML, including a chapter on XPath, XPointer, and XInclude. From there, the book gets more into the PHP5 functionality and the features it offers. The main focus, however, is on the web services, with a few chapters given just to them.

Overall, the review is positive, save for some concerns of the content dealing with XML security and XSLT.

Codewalkers.com has posted a new book review today of the APress book (by Scott Mattocks) - Pro PHP-GTK.

PHP-GTK is a library allowing PHP developers to create graphical GTK applications. Pro PHP-GTK by Scott Mattocks aims to teach this tool to people of all skill levels from those who can read PHP fairly well to professionals. This might make it kind of disturbing for the more advanced coder, because the book teaches even the most basic things like "What is a GUI application?" and "What are they good for?"

Although the book is meant for beginning coders, too, it doesn't mean it should contain stuff that is aimed at people who know nothing about computers. Luckily, after a few chapters this problem seems to vanish.

He notes that once the basics are out of the way, the book really gets to the heart of the matter with a case study of a product information management system example. Lots of code is provided, and there's some talk about getting the needed packages installed to work with the examples in the book. He rates it well, with only a few issues (too simple to start?) to detract from it.

PHP-GTK users can now rejoice (or even those that want to become PHP-GTK users)! According to Scott Mattocks (the author), the PHP-GTK book is now available.

Pro PHP-GTK is now available. Pro PHP-GTK was written to provide the reader with an understanding of the fundamentals of PHP-GTK. This approach empowers the user with the ability to create applications not by just copying and modifying the examples but by understanding what tools are available to solve a problem and how different pieces of the puzzle work together.

The book goes into the details of parent and child relationships, signals and events, layout, displaying and collecting different types of data and customizing the look and feel of an application.

Scott also includes links to a table of contents [pdf] for the book and a sample chapter for those wanting to try before you buy.

Rob Richards, the author of the "Pro PHP XML and Web Services" book from APress, has posted this new item on his (new) blog today about a contest he's doing to give away a copy of his book.

Rather than ask you to find some answer to an obscure question, the contest is pretty easy. Simply send an email to contest@cdatazone.org before midnight EST on April 30th 2006 telling me why you want a copy and why I should give it to you rather than someone else.

The deadline for submissions is midnight EST on April 30th of 2006, and the winner will be announced on May 7th. Be sure you include a valid email address for him to get back with you if you're a winner. And if you want a tip on getting a bit higher in the ranks, be sure to take heed of his last note:

Keep it short, to the point and I am easily amused.

In a continuing effort to share his PHP security knowledge with the community, Chris Shiflett has launched a new means of communication - Brain Bulb Webcasts.

I've been playing around with Snapz Pro lately. I originally intended to use it to help spice up some of my talks by offering prepared demos directly in Keynote, but I have also decided that it would be useful to offer various talks and demos to the PHP community.

The first Brain Bulb Webcast is PHP Security Audit HOWTO, a short video of one of my conference talk.

The webcast plays in QuickTime and lasts about 20 minutes with lots of good tips along the way.

In a major announement from php|architect today, there's news that they've joined forces with the Pro PHP Podcast to create the "php|architect's Pro PHP Podcast".

The publishers of php|architect and the producers of the Pro PHP Podcast show announced today that they have joined forces to create a new kind of podcast show that showcases the professional PHP world with a combination of live interviews and newscasts that will be aired weekly over the Internet.

Dubbed php|architect's Pro PHP Podcast, the new show will air weekly, alternating between a pre-recorded newscast and an interview, which will be broadcast in real time using php|architect's exclusive webcasting technology.

The innaguaral episode of this new collaboration will be an interview with Andi Gutmans from Zend and will air January 27th, 2006 at 1PM EST (live). To join in, you can visit and sign up!