At php|tek 2009 this year, I picked up a copy of php|architect's Guide to PHP Design Patterns by Jason Sweat.  In the following month (June), I read it and took a number of notes.

First off, personally, I come from a Java background and got deep into Design Patterns there.  Reading Fowler's "Patterns of Enterprise Architecture" and "Refactoring", they just made sense.  Stepping into the PHP world initially (2003-2004?), things were a mess.  This was pre-PHP5, so Objects were mediocre at best.  Spaghetti code was king.  And well, you get the picture.  In the last few years, there's been a gradual - yet growing - shift in the maturity of the tools, community, and practices.  This book serves as an example of it.

In past years of ZendCon, I would provide day by day coverage of all the sessions, events, people, and chaos.  I began with that mission this year - ZendCon 2008 Day 0 - but quickly realized that way too much happened which I could give justice to.. so I punted and went for the Closing Thoughts..

The Good...

Due to a slight mishap in my own coverage of the 2008 DCPHP Conference coverage, this writeup of Day 3 is going live long after my "Closing Thoughts". And by "slight mishap", I mean I forgot to write this one. ;)

Two weeks ago saw the third DCPHP Conference happen on George Washington University. This post covers the third and final day of the conference and was written after everything was done. Previous coverage is available here: 2008 DCPHP Conference - Day 1 and 2008 DCPHP Conference - Day 2.

Disclosure: Although I am a shameless promoter of the DCPHP Community, my only formal role is one of the three moderators on the mailing list. Other than being a member of the group, I have no title, investment, or financial/legal ties to any of the groups involved. I just believe firmly that success for the conference and the community means bigger success for the community... myself included on both sides of that equation.

Last week saw the third DCPHP Conference happen on George Washington University. This post covers the second day of the conference and was written after everything was done. The first day of coverage is available here: 2008 DCPHP Conference - Day 1.

Last week saw the third DCPHP Conference happen on George Washington University. This post covers the first day of the conference and was written after everything was done.

The opening keynote was from Kshemendra Paul, Chief Architect for the Office of Management and Budget Executive Office of the President, who talked about their attempt collaboration and coordination going on between the different Federal Agencies. While I found some of his discussion points and examples interesting, there weren't many Fed or govt-types in the audience this time around. In addition, he didn't bring slides, so the url's he shared were spelled out for all to write down. Wha? The dynamic duo from the State of Iowa - Michael Tutty and Tony Bibbs - were in attendance and shared some perspective and ideas, but it simply wasn't relevant to a good portion of the audience.

This is a recap of PodCampDC 2008 which happened on 19 April 2008. If you're disappointed you missed it... well, keep an eye out for the next one! ;) You can check out some of the PodCampDC pictures on Flickr.

Due to an exhausting couple of weeks, I chose to sleep in and miss the opening keynote.

The first session was Jessie Newburn's talk on "Generations and Social Media". I've met and spoken with Jessie a number of times over the past couple months, but this was the first opportunity to really hear some of the guts and details of the generational differences, priorities, patterns, etc.