Damien Seguy
Code quality expert
Damien Seguy est directeur technique chez Exakat Sas., société spécialisée dans les solutions pour la qualité du code source en PHP. Il dirige le développement du moteur d'analyse statique Exakat, qui assure la revue de code pour les migrations, la clareté et la sécurité. Avec près de vingt ans de contributions au monde PHP, son expérience l'a fait passé par la rédaction de la documentation, l'élevage d'elephpants, l'animation de groupes d'utilisateurs sur trois continents. Il aime faire du gremlin, des 狮子头 et du camembert.
Get ready for PHP 8.2
Already, PHP 8.2 is upon us, and it is bringing a truckload of new features and modernizations. New types (null, false, DNF), readonly classes, new Attributes : we are in for a treat ! We’ll also cover the backward incompatiblities : locale support, dynamic properties. During this session, we’ll also see how to get your code ready with tools that check for PHP compatibility automatically.
PHP Strong typing : adoption, evolution and organisation
There are tactical reasons to adopt strong typehint : easy validation, less code, fashionable. Besides, the first typehints blend in effortlessly with the current application : it is as if typehint was already there. Later, it appears that scalar types paved the way to more substantial code refactoring. Classes emerge from the initial scalar types, code congregate around important values, types gets more complex. Finally, systemic typehint arrives. Type hints become systemic when they help tame the class dependency hell, and help us plan for the new code. During the session, we'll cover the various stages of using typehints, with their advantages, and when not to overuse them.
Four usages of PHP static analysis
Static analysis is for life, not just for christmas. While finding bugs is before execution a staple, static analysis provide tools to go even further. It scans the code to offer suggestions, training unususpecting developer into using modern PHP code, or simply local patterns. It provides inventories, linking remote parts of the code by their value and process, and bringing more consistency across the whole code base. Finally, it can document the code base, and keep it real-time. The best is that each of those mission has available tools for the job.
Extra features for PHP, beyond the engine
Could PHP have features outside the engine ? The Zend engine is build for executing PHP code, with performance in mind. Everything has to be processed in a record time, to sustain the heavily loads of PHP web applications. And there are also the code options, which help during development : assertions, syntax options, or attributes. Those options may be applied independantly from execution, and yet, provide a greater level of control on PHP code. To do that, we’ll review PHP syntax, and static analysis.
Automating plugin compatibility checks
While PHP compatibility is a classic quest, compatibility frameworks is an uncharted new territory. With each version of the foundation code, new classes, methods and arguments appears, while other fade away: this is the fast pace of modern evolution. And it is a lot easier to keep up with an automated tool.
We introduce the PDFF archive. PHP Document File Format is an open source format. It provides an encyclopedic description of the OOP API. Static analysis tool take full advantage of this knowledge to audit the code and identify discrepancies.
Best of all, PDFF is both machine and human friendly : it serves as documentation, by listing all structural evolutions, and help cross the versions gap : that includes the upcoming ones.
16 years in the life of elephpant
The last ones who told me I could learn from a plush toy were my daughters. Of course, I acknowledged. Yet, it dawned on me: after 16 years of life, the PHP plush has achieved so much! It went to the White House and Antarctica; it spawned a hundred thousand offsprings and a jet-set generation of collectors; it built bridges within and outside the community.
The PHP elephpant is the living symbol of the PHP community, straight from the genius of Vincent Pontier. It is a whole character, running across the world and changing colors all the time. Everybody need elephpant love !
Nowadays, it is alive and kicking. It still reviews my code, casting an odd look to me, once in while. No one can have enough elePHPant.
Damien Seguy
Code quality expert