Tangible Knowledge

Here is my latest editorial for the October 2013 issue of php[architect] magazine:

Tangible Knowledge

I don’t know what it is, but there is something about a solid, printed page that makes it so much easier for me to read and study. I really like the feeling of browsing through, turning each page. There is something wonderful about consuming knowledge from a tangible resource that you don’t need a screen and electricity for. If you are nodding your head while reading this, then I have some amazing news.

Beginning with next month’s issue, php[architect] will once again be available in print format. You can eagerly wait at your mailbox each month for your mail delivery person to hand you a crisp, colorful magazine filled with PHP goodness. It has been a tough road of research and negotiating, but we are thrilled to be able to bring print back as a part of our format options (and if you just renewed and are kicking yourself for not waiting, never fear – you can upgrade your existing subscription to include print).

This month’s theme is scalability, and we have a great selection of articles to help you dig in and clean things up. First up, Adam introduces us to Varnish, an HTTP reverse proxy that can serve cached content directly from memory, making it very useful for easily scaling applications. Once you’ve cut your teeth on Adam’s article, Justin dives in deeper with his article on Varnish’s Edge Side Includes and shows you how Varnish excels at scaling dynamic content. Albert has put together a solution for automating various optimizations for scaling, and he shares it with us this month while Jeroen explains how Zend Server can help get you up and developing more quickly. If you loved Keith’s article on Google App Engine for PHP in the August 2013 issue of php[architect], you’ll love taking a much more in-depth look with Luis in his article on developing on Google App Engine.

I am also happy to introduce a new column this month called “The Confident Coder”. We all shudder when our code is going to be exposed to the general public or to fellow coders for a code review. Why are we afraid? Because we all have bad habits and are missing some simple things to make our code cleaner, more efficient, and error free. In this new column, Aaron will address quick and easy ways that you can clean up your code, not only making things run better, but making it easier for you to share your code comfortably with others. Eli, per usual, wraps things up, and this column has some statistics that you will not want to miss. It’s a crazy world out there, and it’s running on PHP.

If you are going to be at True North PHP or Madison PHP Conference, I will see you there. If not, well, then I’ll just be seeing you on paper next month.