Chris Roane has put together a list of things that he wishes someone would have told him back when he was starting out as a web programmer ten years ago, helpful hints that could have made things easier in the long run.

When I reflect on my past experience as a web programmer, there are many things that I know now that I didn't know ten years ago. The learning process was valuable, but I could have been at a different spot today as a PHP web programmer if I knew these things earlier. Sometimes you don't have the info when it would benefit you the most, but my hope is that this list will give you something to reflect on.

Most of the tips a more of the general tech nature with a few non-tech ones thrown in. Here's a few examples:

• Over Estimate Your Time
• Don't Assume that Where You are Working is the Best Opportunity
• Learn How to Use and Work with SVN
• Master Organization
• Learn Outside of Work

Read the full post for more great tips.

On his blog today Alan Sorkin has a humorous take on what the difference is between computer scientists, programmers and developers according to where they place their focus.

I have often used those three terms almost interchangeably, yes, even computer scientist. After all, most of us have a degree in computer science, so what does that make us? However, recently I find that those three things have come to take on more and more distinct personalities in my mind. [...] It is difficult to define what each one should be, (it is more of a gut feel rather than a strict delineation) they are very similar (and rightly so), but I am going to attempt to do it anyway.

He splits them up according to a few criteria - how their code looks, how it works and what level their math skills are at. The photos he uses to further define each are pretty dead on too.

Brandon Savage has written a sort of letter to those developers new to the PHP community and to the language to encourage them to not worry, that things will come in time.

Every day, new people join the PHP world, writing their first "hello world" script and moving on from there to connect to databases, build CRUDs, and otherwise explore the PHP language. If you're one of them, you shouldn't feel inadequate. No, learning PHP is a learning process. One of PHP's strengths is that it is easy to learn, and that anyone can learn how to do it. Fewer can learn how to do it properly, but for those that do learn how to do it right, it can be a powerful language and a solid tool.

He reminds the developers that it's okay to ask for help when you need it (like on forums or IRC) and that reading things like blogs and the manual can help you more than anything else.

In a recent post from Brandon Savage he looks at something not commonly thought about with the act of developing applications - ethics and how they impact the end user.

Doctors, lawyers and engineers are required by their professions to receive certifications and follow certain ethical guidelines. These rules exist to protect those who rely on their services. [...] Software development is a skill, and an increasingly important one, but one that is not governed by any licensing or ethical rules. It's a Wild West of ethical and legal conduct.

He suggests that, since the world of programming (and programmers) grows larger and larger every day, there should be some sort of standards put in place to ensure that the developer you just added to your team (or contractor!) will write code that handles user data correctly and provides the security guaranteed to the users of the system.

In this new post to his KillerPHP blog Stefan Mischook takes a quick look at professional programming and what separates professional programmers out from the rest.

I recently got an email question put to me by someone wanting to know what makes a professional programmer. [...] A good programmer is able to put out clean code that works and is easy to update. Simplicity is a sign of professionalism in any profession or discipline.

He goes on to talk about some of the things a programmer should learn to help them move towards that "professional" status including object oriented programming, design patterns, MVC frameworks and getting in "under the hood".

On the Techfounder.net blog today Eran Galperin asks the question "what makes a good programmer?":

Some casual surfing led me to this article from a couple of years ago, titled "How to recognize a good programmer". [...] It got me thinking though, on what are the attributes I consider useful in fellow programmers. So what makes a good programmer?

Some of the key features he suggests looking for in a good programmer include:

• An analytical thinker
• Gets things done
• Does more than "just enough"
• Responsible
• Good human relations

Want to be a better programmer? Robert Stackhouse suggests fighting your natural instincts:

I was watching a video of the Google I/O conference. In it, one of the speakers said that, "It's our natural instinct to try to be a genius, but we need to try to fight that." [...] In this video, they touched on a whole host of natural tendencies: getting defensive, hiding your code away from the world, trying to exert ownership, and trying to do it all ourselves. All of these actions have very real very negative consequences for the team.

Opening yourself and your code up to review by your peers can sometimes be a scary thing but, in the long run, transparency is necessary for good team-based development. He also recommends bringing up issues to other developers in a more one-on-one setting rather than a group.

Stefan Mischook has posted another video to his KillerPHP.com site today looking at how you can become a better programmer - by learning another language.

In this video, I discuss how learning another programming language will make you a better PHP programmer. This may seem strange at first, but watch the video and you will see that I am not smoking anything...

He recommends learning something like Java or Actionscript or something that's not a match (ex. another web language) for what you're doing now. Something that's complementary would be even better. Thankfully, most languages share traits of others - common thought processes behind implementation and the like - so its simpler than you might think.

In this new post to his blog today Stefan Koopmanschap reviews a book that, while not specifically PHP related, can help out just about anyone digging their hands into source code daily - "The Productive Programmer" (Neal Ford, O'Reilly).

So what is the book about? Basically, it is a programmer efficiency guide. It goes through several tools, pieces of software but also development approaches that will make your developer life easier and more efficient.

He goes on to talk about the two main sections of the book - Mechanics and Practice - and what's contained in each. Stefan also points out a few things that he learned as he went through the book including a strong push for automation, how some of the ancient philosophies still apply to development today and the motivation to question how things "have always been done" to look for a better way.