Phil Sturgeon has a new post to his site today comparing a few different types of developers and discussing language/tool zealots among them (and a plea for tolerance and understanding).

What is it you do as a developer? As I see it in web dev there are a few different types: Hobbiest, Client Web Dev, Distributed Application Devs, Web App Developer (SaaS) and Corporate Dev. What do they all have in common? They're all using some sort of language to make some sort of system for somebody somewhere. That is about the last connecting factor that most of us developers actually share. [...] The crazy thing here is that most developers who are in a situation where they can use whatever system they like, often end up picking a specific tool and using it to death. This is ridiculous, as every developer should use the best tool for the job.

He talks a bit about each of the different categories of developers and where he sees their place in the world of development. He points out some of the restrictions of each type of position (required technologies, dependencies, etc) and comes to his point about their choices:

The point I am trying to make in all of this, is that while you might have really strong opinions about what language, framework, version of the framework or version of the language you use, EVERYONE has a totally different situation to you.

An interesting site has popped up in the PHP community during the last week - the PHP Sadness site, a listing of things that the author says "make him sad" about the PHP language.

These are things in PHP which make me sad. They are real, objective issues which I have personally encountered in my normal day-to-day activites. Nothing on this site should be taken to be the view of my employer or is related to my employer in any way.

The page is split up into several different sections including:

• Lexer/Parser Issues
• Inconsistency
• Anti-functional Design
• Arbitrary Restrictions

Each of the for most of the things on the list, he's linked to a page showing some example code of the complaint and how significant of an impact it could have on your code. He's also set up a discussion board for those that want to talk about these issues further.

When it comes to protecting your code, you definitely want to find the right product for your needs. Finding the information on all of the encoders out there can be a task in itself, though. Fortunately, EncoderCompare.com has been created to give you a quick and easy reference.

Whilst we would always recommend the use of the ionCube Encoder product to protect your PHP source code when distributing your product to customers and users, there are several other products available to choose from.

To help with this, we have launched a comparison website which lists the available encoders and compares their features. The feature set is standardised so that it is possible to compare like for like in a clear manner.

Currently, there's fifteen encoders listed with all of their stats - protection types, restrictions available, what OSes it has loaders for, the availability of licensing, and the pricing. There's links to get more specific information on each as well.

When it comes to protecting your code, you definitely want to find the right product for your needs. Finding the information on all of the encoders out there can be a task in itself, though. Fortunately, EncoderCompare.com has been created to give you a quick and easy reference.

Whilst we would always recommend the use of the ionCube Encoder product to protect your PHP source code when distributing your product to customers and users, there are several other products available to choose from.

To help with this, we have launched a comparison website which lists the available encoders and compares their features. The feature set is standardised so that it is possible to compare like for like in a clear manner.

Currently, there's fifteen encoders listed with all of their stats - protection types, restrictions available, what OSes it has loaders for, the availability of licensing, and the pricing. There's links to get more specific information on each as well.