On the ProDevTips blog today Henrik describes a situation where he "tried to be clever" with the array_map and array_filter functions and some of the confusion in their usage.

I knew array_filter existed and what it was all about since before, however I started working with something requiring array_map first, all well and OK, array_map looks like this: array_map('callback', Array). So then I assumed I could use array_filter in the same fashion, big mistake.

He was caught by the parameter order difference between the two and problems with how the callbacks worked. In the end, he he spent an hour to create a function to search an array for a partial match and didn't even end up using the array functions (opting for calls to stripos instead).

If you've ever wanted to go to a technology conference (there's several PHP ones out there!) but have talked yourself away from them with excuses, you might want to check this new post from Lorna Mitchell to see if any of them match up. She dispels some of the common misconceptions about attending conferences - five, to be exact.

I can quite appreciate that different people come to conferences for different reasons, but I cannot accept that people actively avoid conferences because they think its not for them - and the reasons for this, from people who have never been to a conference, are wild and varied. Most are based on misconceptions and I'd like to take the time to examine some of these.

She looks at some of the most common:

• I won't know anyone
• It's too expensive
• My employer won't pay
• I might have to talk to people/strangers
• I haven't been to a conference

These along with a few other recommendations can rid you of some of the worries you might have over attending and maybe give you something new to talk to your manager about when the next conference rolls around.

In this new post to his blog Timothy Boronczyk has a few suggestions about what's wrong with the current implementation of object oriented programming in most languages (including PHP).

Proponents of Object Oriented Programming feel the paradigm yields code that is better organized, easier to understand and maintain, and reusable. [...] If objects truly model the way people think of things in the real world, then why do people have a hard time understanding and working in OOP? I suspect the problem might be the focus on objects instead of actions.

He goes on to explain that, in his opinion, the functionality would be more understandable if it focused on the actions from the user's point of view rather than what the object itself can do.

The way some OOP languages (like Java and C#) force objects on the programmer borders on the absurd. [...] Sadly though, that decision isn't left to the programmer who has been tasked with developing and maintaining a system.

In his latest blog post, Aaron Wormus asks the PHP community exactly "what's wrong with PEAR?"

I didn't attend Theo's talk, so the only information that I got was from the blog entries and slides. I realize that this short presentation was humorous, but it still brings up some points that have been nagging at the back of my head for a while now.

The comment in question is part of the Six Reasons PHP Sucks lightning talk.

The comment jokes about the quality of PEAR code. OF course, as Aaron notes, these types of comments aren't anythng new. The real issue at stake is that people don't understand PEAR. To help further the cause behind this (in)famous set of libraries, he's written an article for php|architect to dispell some of the myths.