Paul M. Jones

Yesterday, I released Solar 1.0.0beta3. You can see the very short change log here. Special thanks to “kalkin” for committing a series of fixes and improvements.
These days I’m concentrating more on documentation. Previously, we had only the ubiquitous quick-start blog demo. This release includes a new chapter on Solar’s dynamic dispatch cycle; i.e., [...]

I started working at OmniTI on 01 Oct 2007; today marks my last day with the company. After two years and three months, it’s time to move on. I wish Theo and everyone else there all the best in their current and future endeavors.
While I don’t have a new employer, my finances are such that [...]

Today, Michelangelo van Dam posted this narrative relating his experience with Zend Framework models:
http://www.dragonbe.com/2010/01/zend-framework-data-models.html
I read the article, and wondered how hard it would be to replicate his narrative using the Solar Framework model system. Turns out it’s pretty easy: there’s a lot of work that Solar does for you.

PHP is like a handgun. On its own, it is simply an inanimate tool that has no moral leaning. In the hands of a responsible citizen, it can be used to the benefit of society. But in the hands of someone who is untrained or mentally unstable, it can be used to commit horrible atrocities.
Whenever [...]

The Solar Framework for PHP went to “beta” status on 18 Dec 2009 with its first beta release. I just now released beta2, along with an official blog demo tutorial.
http://solarphp.com/manual
The blog demo tutorial covers how to:

Download and install a new Solar system;
Make a vendor-space for working in the system;
Configure the system;
Make a model from a [...]

Keith Casey has a great series of points about joining a startup here, especially the part about founders who “believe in themselves”.
To this, I must also add a recommendation to read Gerber’s The E-Myth for entrepreneurial-minded programmers thinking about starting a business of their own.

My article for PHP Advent 2009, the first in this year’s offerings, has been published: http://phpadvent.org/2009/comprehensible-code-by-paul-jones. Summary: “Reading code is hard work. Here are some reasons why, along with some tips on how to make it easier for other developers to understand your code.” If you would like to comment on it, [...]

I have said it before and I’ll say it again now: If you want to see the future of Zend Framework, look at the Solar Framework for PHP 5. Read to see what ZF 2.0 has planned, that Solar does right now.

Agile ain’t agile no more when adopted as the official enterprise software development process. The problem with agile is “agile != flexible”.
Agile was born in the world of contractors who have to show something for the money at every status meeting. For a while clients let themselves fooled with use cases written on many hundreds [...]

Solar 1.0.0alpha5 has been released, with a few bugfixes and one change. The change notes are below. Also of note, I have created separate "alpha" and "beta" branches, so we can continue bugfix releases on the alpha side while not having to release new beta features.

Solar_Form

[FIX] Form attributes for id, name, and class [...]