Downloaded 15 times
Uploaded byPete Prodoehl
PHP Hacking: The battle between great ideas and not-so-great code
This document discusses hacking and PHP. It begins by defining different types of hackers from malicious cyber criminals to programmers who enjoy exploring and stretching the capabilities of software. It then discusses PHP and how it is a programming language used for building websites. The document proceeds to describe several PHP projects the author developed for work or as hobby projects to experiment with open APIs and learn new techniques. It encourages readers to use open APIs creatively and make their own cool projects.
More Related Content
Similar to PHP Hacking: The battle between great ideas and not-so-great code
PHP Hacking: The battle between great ideas and not-so-great code
- 1. PHP Hacking The battle between great ideas and not-so-great code Pete Prodoehl http://rasterweb.net/raster/
- 2. PHP: Hypertext Preprocessor PHP:Hypertext Preprocessor
- 3. Developer “Software development is theact of working to produce/create software.”
- 4. Programmer “Computer programming is theprocess of writing, testing, debugging/troubleshooting, and maintaining the source code of computer programs.”
- 5. Hacker “Someone who playsgolf poorly.” hmmm...
- 6. Hacker “A programmer whobreaks into computer systems in order to steal or change or destroy information as a form of cyber-terrorism.” uhhh...
- 7. Hacker 1. A personwho enjoys exploring the details of programmable systems and how to stretch their capabilities, as opposed to most users, who prefer to learn only the minimum necessary. 2. One who programs enthusiastically (even obsessively) or who enjoys programming rather than just theorizing about programming. 3. A person capable of appreciating hack value. 4. A person who is good at programming quickly. 5. An expert at a particular program, or one who frequently does work using it or on it; as in ‘a UNIX hacker.’ 6. An expert or enthusiast of any kind. One might be an astronomy hacker, for example. 7. One who enjoys the intellectual challenge of creatively overcoming or circumventing limitations. From “The Jargon File” http://www.catb.org/jargon/
- 8.
- 15. PHP “It’s like PERL,but for building web sites, and... not as good...”
- 16. Culture Kellan Elliott-McCrea “The hardestpart in working with languages I’m less familiar with (python, and php for example) rather then those I’m more comfortable with (perl or java) is not syntax questions, its culture.” http://laughingmeme.org/2002/10/23/there-has-got-to-be-a-better-way/
- 17. Feed on Feeds Anopen source web-based aggregator. In 2004, I hacked the living crap out of it...
- 18. Categorize A tool tocategorize articles. In 2004, I wrote it for my employer...
- 19. delisync A tool tosync your del.icio.us data. Open APIs are a good thing... exploit them!
- 20. Locator A store locatorusing Google Maps. 90% example code 10% my own code
- 21. Evil-O-Mator Just another sillyhack... 90% silly 10% PHP
- 22. Heard A tool tomirror your Last.fm data. Open APIs are (still) Hu b! G it good... exploit them! on Now
- 23. MAKE COOL SHIT!
- 24.
- 25. Thank You Find meon the Internet! Blog: http://rasterweb.net/raster/ Email: pete@rasterweb.net Twitter: @raster
Editor's Notes
- #2 \n
- #3 Are there any developers here tonight?\nAny programmers here?\n
- #4 \n
- #5 Any Hackers?\n
- #6 That describes me...\n
- #7 That doesn’t describes me... in fact, I think that’s a “cracker”\n
- #8 Here’s a few definitions of Hacker I can identify with...\n
- #9 I’m actually a Perl Hacker... I started using BASIC around 1980, and was out of programming until about 1993. I tried to learn Perl by reading about it but it didn’t stick. (And this was MacPerl at the time!) I was using UserTalk Frontier at the time, which had this weird internal scripting language, and I did a lot of stuff in that. Eventually I started using Linux web servers and a guy I knew at work got me started in Perl. When I found my code was running about 20 times faster, I started using Perl.\n
- #10 I never really got into Java... I never really liked Sun too much, and I couldn’t get into Java. Even though the open source text editor I’ve used for the last 6 years has been written in Java. I did write some BeanShell scripts. Nowadays I’m working with the Arduino and Processing, which is as close to Java as I get.\n
- #11 This is your typical Java developer. An attractive looking woman with a nondescript laptop who lays on the floor with no shoes on. She’s having so much damn fun, I really want to get into Java. I actually do know an attractive woman who is reading a Java book, and when I asked why, she said to learn how to build web sites. I sort of shook my head... Rogers Cadenhead wrote it.\n
- #12 Dot Net. Dear God.... As someone who has always hated Microsoft, and probably always will, I’m not about to touch Dot Net. I got burned by ASP and other Microsoft technologies, and I avoid Mono like, well Mono, and I’m not doing Dot Net.\n
- #13 This is your typical Dot Net developer.\n
- #14 Rails. I should probably say “Ruby on Rails” but 90% of the time I hear the word “Ruby” it’s followed by “on Rails” anyway. Rails or Ruby, or whatever, is something I should really look into, but I haven’t. I will someday... unless I don’t. I worked with a developer once who decided he’d learn Rails by writing a client application in Rails. He ended up scrapping the whole thing and re-writing it in PHP over a weekend. \n
- #15 OK, seriously... if this didn’t have the names on the photo, I would have thought this was a fashion shoot for American Apparel or something. Maybe the Gap? I don’t know... Really? These guys are behind Rails? They look like male models... Did they coordinate their wardrobes? Are you allowed to be a Rails dude if you’re not good looking?\n
- #16 This was my first introduction to PHP... I knew a lot of Perl hackers who started building web sites with PHP. We did a lot of complaining about how PHP did something wrong, or was missing something we used in Perl... But you know what? PHP is OK... it’s gotten much better over the years. Remember PHP3? Don’t get me started... Hey, at least it isn’t ColdFusion! Actually, speaking of ColdFusion, the biggest mistake I ever made at one of my old jobs was going along with the boss’s decision to use ColdFusion instead of PHP because “it was already installed.” I tried numerous times to get the application re-written in PHP, but it never happened.\n
- #17 It’s a bit of Culture Shock really... After years of using a language, you get used to it, and know how it works, and not just the “language” but the people who use it, and develop it, and how it gets used, and the community, and all the surrounding bits that have nothing to do with code... That was my struggle with PHP. Culture is what the real difference is between Drupal and Joomla, or Apple and Microsoft, or the U.S. and Canada.\n
- #18 Back when your RSS Aggregator was made by friends of yours instead of big corporations, a guy named Steve Minutillo released Feed on Feeds. I installed it on my own server and hacked the crap out of it. I added all these features I wanted to see in an aggregator. This is probably when I realized how awesome PHP was.\n
- #19 I wrote this for the company I worked for at the time... I based it on Feed on Feeds to some degree. That was the application that I learned how to write PHP applications from. Chances are I did it all wrong, and continue to do it all wrong... but I don’t sort of don’t care.\n
- #20 Back in 2004 or 2005 or something like that, del.icio.us used to have downtime (this is before Yahoo! acquired it) so I wrote some code to synchronize data between del.icio.us and any other service using the del.icio.us API... People actually used it!\n
- #21 This past summer I had to build a store locator for a web site... Google had sample code that did most of the work, and I added a bunch of site-specific features. It’s pretty unremarkable, but I’m glad the sample was written in PHP.\n
- #22 This started out as a simple project to play with HTML5, CSS3, and the <audio> tag. I ended up writing it in PHP because I figured learning a new language on top of all that was too much. I think I finished it around 4AM one night. It works. I also ended up putting a bunch of easter eggs into it later just for Tom Henrich. \n
- #23 This is similar to the delisync thing. It uses the Last.fm API to pull all of my data out, store it in MySQL, and then display it on my own site. It&#x2019;s a complete mirror of my Last.fm data running on my own server. I also ended up putting this on GitHub thanks to Matt Gauger. Now I&#x2019;m waiting patiently for someone to make it 100 times better so I can upgrade. If it doesn&#x2019;t happen... oh well. I&#x2019;m really a fan of PHP letting me experiment and exercise my ideas than anything else... Oddly enough a Perl guy said he wished it was written in Perl so he could hack at it. You just can&#x2019;t win...\n
- #24 Hack... \n
- #25 Hack... \n
- #26 \n