Sorry for being quiet around here, I’ve been doing a ton of writing for other places. One went live today, Untitled as part of PHP Advent 2009. Since there are no comments on the site, I’ll accept them here.
Sorry for being quiet around here, I’ve been doing a ton of writing for other places. One went live today, Untitled as part of PHP Advent 2009. Since there are no comments on the site, I’ll accept them here.
Comment. 😉
PHP is the lingua franca of the world wide web. Whenever I want to connect to a middleware service (called web API’s these days), I first get it right in PHP. Whenever I want something that student workers can quickly become productive with, I use PHP.
I’m a huge Python/Django & Ruby/Rails fan, but I will never stop using PHP because it is so broadly accepted and supported.
Why is PHP so much more successful than other languages like Perl or Java? Because it is TIGHTLY COUPLED to standards of the world wide web, e.g. HTML. The fact that you can rename any html file as a *.php and it works the same is evidence.
PHP helps people get things done fast. And web speed is like no other. Decoupled nicety is possible in PHP, so you can do stepwise refinement of your code to make it more extensible, robust, secure, and all that jazz.
PHP bridges the gap between short-term, gotta-get-that-done urgency, and long-term goals to build it right, like no other language can.
it’s seems to be in fashion to claim that “people don’t read anymore”… I often have a feeling that this claim is shaping a reality rather then describing one
Skim Skim Skim seems to be the reality at least for me these days. But it depends on the article, who the writer is and if I care about the subject. Then I will do less skimming and more reading and reading the line over again.
But “People don’t read; they Google.”, is one of the greatest truths today. This is why encyclopedia’s don’t exist anymore. And why you can get a faster result from Google-ing the website that actually looking on the website.
“but write out ampersand hash eight two one seven semicolon whenever I use a contraction in a HTML document”
Why not a simple apostrophe if you use UTF8? Sure, you have to press three keys for that on Mac, but it’s still fewer than to write out that entity. Using numbered entities in UTF8 document makes no sense.
I actually read the entire article. 🙂
great post and list of links, thanks a lot!
Actually, Twitter does have years on the site. The tweets just have to be a year old. Makes sense when you think about it.
Oh that’s neat. 🙂
Well, I read this whole article, even though I barely understood any of the technical language, because the writing is clear and relevant to my learning about use of website and blog for communication. Scanning is possible if one already understands the content, is looking for something in the content, or doesn’t really care about the content. Reading implies slower thought, greater comprehension. What price undersstanding? btw, really liked the note about Twitter not including years. Why not? Oversight?
Do you think people are actually reading less, or that there is more to read?
I had to re-read your article twice, and I still don’t think I got the point. But the last paragraph makes it worth it. This is a great quote: “It is much harder to make something important to someone than it is to simplify its interface or extend its functionality.”