New in PHP 7 Let’s review the new constants, functions, classes, interfaces and trait that PHP 7 features. We have reviewed the core of PHP (as of June 1rst) and spotted quite some new structures that are already available to you if you’re testing the water with PHP7. New Constants in PHP 7 In the core, […]

Prepare for PHP 7 error messages (part 3) This is the third party of our presentation of PHP error messages. In the first article, we covered the evolution of error messages in the PHP binary, and in the second, we reviewed eight new messages. We’ll finish with sever other messages and three that were dropped […]

Prepare for PHP 7 error messages In the article “Prepare for PHP 7 error messages (part 1)” from last week, we covered the evolution of error messages in the PHP binary. In order to prepare for prepare for PHP 7 error messages, we are now going to review the new messages that are appearing in […]

How code dies Code is born, grows, matures, decays and then dies. It may be seen as a living matter, just like the tulips in my garden. It is scary to transpose that image to code: little typo appearing, pieces of code disappearing, constants that changes their value over time (code inflation?), part of code […]

Magic number is a literal value with unexplained meaning, that appears in the code multiple times. Such values will show no intent, and should be replace by a constant: the name of the constant will make the code more readable, and easier to update in the future. Hunting for Magic Numbers Let’s take a look […]

Why to use automated PHP Code Analysis Tools ? Traditional PHP Code Review demands an army of developers. Doing go PHP Code Review demands scarce experts. Sustainable PHP Code review demands tools that each uses to help manage the code. With the increasingly important of technical debt, in PHP as elsewhere, we’ve seen the last two […]

  What are interfaces ? Interfaces, in PHP as in all other OOP languages, specify what methods must be implemented in a class. Interfaces gives names and arguments counts, but no content : the actual code will be provided by the class. <?php interface movable {   function move($distance) ; } class human implements movable {   public function move($distance) […]

Static audit are a great tool to help with code quality. Audits means that the code being written is reviewed by an external auditor. Human auditors are usually the best, though they are not always available. Static auditing provides an automated way to review the code, and receive feedback on it. It checks every file […]

When reviewing code, the first step is to know what has to be checked, and what will be considered for fixing. There are lots of considerations to be taken into account, and it is often difficult to both agree on which code smells to check, and to collect all of them in the same time. […]