Three Devs And A Maybe

Having only just recently been bit by the character encoding issue again, we thought it would be a good time to bring it up on the podcast. Starting from the beginning with ASCII, we move on to discuss how 8-bit compatible machines brought way to the ISO-8859-* standards. This leads us on to Unicode, with the goal to develop a single character-set encoding standard that could support all of the world’s scripts. Finally, we discuss the de-factor character encoding implementation used on the web today ‘UTF-8’, and reasons why this is the case.

This episode we are lucky to have special-guest Lamin Sanneh on the show to discuss all things EmberJS. Looking at the current JavaScript framework landscape, we move on to highlight what makes EmberJS stand-out from the crowd. Finally, we have an ad-hoc quiz which helps highlight PHP function aliases and JavaScript’s ‘this’ context binding.

In this weeks show we introduce error handling, focusing on how exceptions are used. Initially touching on a brief history of exception’s origins, we move on to highlight how languages such as PHP and JavaScript implement them. We round up the chat with a ‘pros and cons’ breakdown and a fun-packed quiz.

In this weeks show we introduce the JavaScript programming language, which now seems to be available everywhere. Initially discussing the prototypal-languages goals, we move on to a brief history lesson - touching on the ECMAScript standard. We then explain how JavaScript uses the DOM and Ajax to create dynamic, client-side applications. Finally, we wrap up with the usual ten question quiz.

In this weeks show we follow up the discussion on CodeIgniter with an introduction to Laravel. Introduced only a few years ago, the framework has been a ‘breath of fresh air’ in the PHP framework landscape. Starting with a brief history of the project and how it has evolved, we move on to highlight key features of the framework that set it apart. One such inclusion is the extensive use of an IoC container, and how Facades cater for an expressive code-base.

In this weeks show we continue our discussion on web application frameworks by delving into CodeIgniter. Though it has had its fair share of bad press over the past couple of years, its mature code-base and ease of getting started can not be denied. Initially exploring what the framework is from a high-level we move on to discuss it’s strengths and weaknesses along with personal experiences. We finally wrap up the show with a CodeIgniter influenced quiz.

This week we introduce web application frameworks into the software development mix. Starting of with what they actually are, we move on to the benefits and useful feature set they provide you.

This week we wrap-up the top ten security risks compiled by OWASP, with discussion on topics including CSRF (Cross Site Request Forgery) and Known Component Vulnerabilities. Also included this week is a brief introduction to Hack and are thoughts on the programming language Go.

With another two man crew this week we decided to make a start our discussion on all things Web Security. Directed at PHP developers, we go over the top five security risks compiled by OWASP (The Open Web Application Security Project).

This week we are lucky to have special guest and good friend of the show Justin DeLucia on to discuss all things web design. Starting off with background discussion on how he got into the industry, we move on to how designers and developers work (and should work) together. Finally, we wrap up with our longest quiz yet, which undoubtedly went off in many random tangents.

With only a two man crew this week we decided to have a little ramble about Composer and the Command Line. Initially discussing the benefits of Composer over alternatives (i.e. PEAR), we move onto some of the real-world issues that can arise from ‘depending’ on it. We then segue into discussing the Command Line and some of the key points new users should now about.

This week we discuss the important topic of learning how to effectively use the PHP documentation. Although easily neglected for other resources (i.e. StackOverflow), the official PHP documentation is a great place to learn about new functions and how they can be used. Finally, we touch on some accompanying third-party documentation tools we use on a daily basis.

This week we discuss the popular MVC (Model-View-Controller) design pattern and how it is used in web application development today. We start with a brief history lesson and introduction to design patterns, then move on to a quiz which highlights some of variants that have been created.

In this weeks show we introduce CSS to the web-development party. Starting off with a brief history lesson, we transition into highlighting why it is useful and the different types of styling options available. Finally, we put to rest the confusion between the different versions.

This week we wrap up the discussion on HTML, highlighting useful tools that we have encountered and incorporate into our work-flow. We then move on to briefly talk about considerations that should be addressed when designing and implementing website navigation.

Sadly we are one host down this week with Lewis hard are work, so we decided to postpone part two of the HTML discussion till next week. In the meantime however, we divert are attention to introducing the Object-oriented programming paradigm. We discuss its’ advantages, along with concepts such as Objects, Classes, Data Encapsulation, Inheritance and Polymorphism.

This week we decided to do an episode on good ol’ HTML. There are many good resources online for learning the language, so instead we decided to discuss our personal experiences. Along with this we reflect on browser support issues and how to help alleviate these problems.

Following our discussion last week, we received a very cool email from a listener highlighting freelance work. In this weeks podcast we have a chat about our freelance experiences and how we find projects to take on. Following this we touch on things to look out for and how to juggle your day job and outside work.

With all the recent discussion in the PHP community we decided it would be a good time to give some grounded advice to new developers. When you do decide to bite the bullet and begin learning web-development/PHP you may quickly be overwhelmed with talk of frameworks, third-party code and dependencies. In this podcast we give our take on what is best to learn and when, and how we each personally went about doing it.

In the podcast this week we discuss the important topic of text editors. You will be using one daily if you plan to get serious about your programing, so it pays to be aware of what is out there. We first highlight the difference between text and source editors, and then name a couple of examples we have used in the past. Finally, we briefly discuss IDE’s and the merits of using such an application when programming.