Conferences & Community

Overview of some events I attended in 2011, things I learned, and some events I wanted to highlight for our local PHP User Group. Presenting on November 17, 2011.

Transcript

1. Conferences & Community Events BCSPHP November 17, 2011 Prepared by Jeff Carouth 1
2. Real-time Heckling • Use hashtag #bcsphp • I am @jcarouth 2
3. Conferences • Go for the presentations. • But also go for the people. • “The hallway track.” • Uncons. 3
4. Day Camp For Developers • Usually on a Saturday • DC4D3 was on Project Management, Oct 2011 • Videos for sale. http://daycampfordevelopers.com/ 4
5. “Day Camp 4 Developers is a one-day, technology agnostic, on-line conference featuring 6 speakers discussing different aspects of a common topic. The topic is always a soft skill that developers need to know about but are rarely taught. It is run by developers and designed to help developers of all experience levels.” - Cal Evans 5
6. Take Aways • Use short, stand-up meetings to discuss “Yesterday’s Weather” • People can be difficult, but communication is the key. • Analyze the impact of change requests. • Communicate impact and action clearly. 6
7. Take Aways (cont) • Employ regular, predictable releases. • Use FAQs to drive simplification and clarification. • Developers suck at estimates. (This is a fact.) 7
8. • October 2011 • Austin, TX • Backend technology agnostic. • Truly a community-driven event. • Videos posted “soon.” http://html5tx.com 8
9. Use HTML5 (and friends) to make cool stuff right now. 9
10. Other thoughts • TAFEE: Tiered, Adaptive Front-End Experience. • meaning: customize the experience to the specific capabilities of the browser • prioritize fast UI and usability over consistent experience. • JavaScript is an integral part of HTML5. 10
11. • File upload is much easier with the File API. • Supports access to the local file system through the browser. • Drag and drop file upload. (Make your users smile.) • CSS3 is scary powerful. (http://garann.com/ html5atx/) 11
12. • Modernizr/YepNope • html5rocks.com • partofhtml5.com • html5boilerplate.com • LESS or SASS Things to look at 12
13. ZendCon • October 2011 • Santa Clara, CA • (Disclaimer: I spoke at this event.) http://zendcon.com 13
14. • Profile your code. This was probably the #1 topic of the conference. • Xdebug and XHProf • Streams are very powerful and succinct. 14
15. Zend Framework 2.0 is here coming soon. 15
16. • Event-driven architecture. • Requires > PHP 5.3 • Easier to contribute to (thank you Github) 16
19. REDDIRT.js • November 2011 • Oklahoma City, OK • Fast-paced JavaScript education. http://reddirtjs.com 19
20. Libraries and tools • This is not the JavaScript you learned in 1999. • Backbone.js, Underscore.js • Benchmarking your code with benchmark.js • CoffeeScript • Node.js and Socket.IO 20
22. • Data does not have to be tied to the DOM • No more tangled mess of jQuery selectors on DOM elements. • “MVC” framework for JS, but you aren’t married to the full stack. 22
23. http://backbonetraining.net/resources 23
24. Community Events 24
25. CodeWorks 2011/12 • PHP community tour. • Stopping in Austin on January 19, 2012. • Tickets are $100. http://codeworks.phparch.com 25
26. BCSPHP • We want YOU to speak. • Pick a topic. It can be anything. • Tell us about a project you worked on and what you learned while working on it. 26
27. webgeekhappyhour.com 27
28. Test PHP 5.4 • Please? • Go to http://qa.php.net • Download php 5.4.0RC1 and extract • Compile, make, and make test 28
29. • @jcarouth • jcarouth@gmail.com Post-facto Heckling 29