This week it was finally delivered and I had the honor to receive the first copy of the book in our office. I'm talking about php|architect's "Guide to Enterprise PHP Development" written by my dear colleague Ivo Jansch. Last year he confided in me, said he wanted to write a book. And he actually did, within the year, 275 pages describing the complete development life cycle. For each phase in the development cycle, Ivo describes the common pitfalls, ways to get around them and tools others use to keep things running smoothly. Because Ivo covers the whole development cycle there should be interesting pieces for every software developing company.

You can find more information about the book on the book's official website. And find out what others think about this book here and here.

After announcing Derick Rethans as the most requested PHP Guru in the Call for Ideas for the Dutch PHP Conference, we are now announcing the most requested topic: PHP6 (and, if not released by the time of the conference, the upcoming PHP 5.3 release).

The talk will not only cover the new features of PHP6, but also addresses what you can do in your apps right now, to smooth the transition later. In other words, tips 'n tricks to keep your code 'portable' across versions.

We launched the Dutch PHP Conference 2008 last week and already received a lot of ideas to complete the program. Among them suggestions for talks about Zend Studio for Eclipse and new features of PHP 5.3. And of course many people want to see their favourite PHP guru talk.

Most popular at the moment is Derick Rethans. Last year he presented the closing keynote about Test-driven development. And although he had a bad cough, his talk was very much appreciated and many want him on the program again. As we said, the wish of the community is our command for the open slots in the schedule, so we contacted Derick.

Gister vertelde ik aan een vriend dat we de Dutch PHP Conference aan het organiseren zijn en dat ik daar zo ontzettend veel plezier in heb. Over de sprekers die we al geboekt hebben en hoe enthousiast die allemaal reageren. Dat het helaas niet gelukt is om Rasmus of Tabini te krijgen omdat hun agenda's al vol zaten maar dat hun reactie wel positief was (dat belooft dus wat voor het programma van volgend jaar). Dat we binnen 24 uur al bijna 50 aanmeldingen binnen hadden. En zo ratelde ik nog even door...

Ik werk pas sinds februari bij Ibuildings en heb daarvoor jaren als marketeer in de closed source wereld gewerkt. Altijd met veel plezier maar het kan niet tippen aan de energie en voldoening die ik krijg van werken bij Ibuildings en met/voor de PHP Community. Ik hoop dan ook vele van jullie te ontmoeten op deze first ever Dutch PHP Conference op zaterdag 16 juni! En dat we nog een topper krijgen om het programma af te sluiten weet ik zeker dus meld je snel aan!