gazette

Gazette Archives

Topics in this issue

Johnny's Ramblings
In the Crosshairs
A Word from Our Sponsor
Forum Watch
Coders Corner
Scumbag of the Week

Issue # 202 (08-12-2003)

Changes Afoot !

We're changing things again here at Jimworld, bringing in some new staffers, and blazing new trails in the forums. Thanks for sticking with us while the dust settles here ... in the end, your JimWorld will be a much better place.

Coders Corner

The next time I see something like this in a PHP application, I'm going to get in my car, drive to the author's house and shake the cobwebs out of their head:

        
    
    
    Do you like apples
    
        No

Can you understand that at first glance? PHP does allow you to embed functions and logic within your html, just like the example above. Basically, it's just showing "Yes" or "No", depending on what you entered, but how ugly is that code?

It would be much clearer, and achieve the same result, if done this way:

    
    
      
       
          Do you like apples
       
       
          No

As you write your PHP (or Perl) programs, remember that you're not the only one who will ever have to figure out what you did or what you were thinking. Just because PHP allows you to write ugly logic, doesn't mean that you have to. Separate, as best you can, your logic from your HTML, and your program will be much more readable, much more fixable, and much more extendable.

Here's a great article series that talks about "acceptable" coding practices in PHP:
http://www.phpbuilder.com/columns/tim20010101.php3

And the Perl Equivalent....
http://www.perldoc.com/perl5.6/pod/perlstyle.html

Read the Coders Corner section from the Last Issue or in the Following Issue

JimWorld Member comments and feedback ...

Posted On: 04/19/2006 04:35
Posted By: alfie1848

Thank you for your review, I will benefit from your suggestions. I have one
question though. You said "In the source, you really need a meta description
for each page just as you do with any web site." How do I do this with blogger?

Posted On: 04/19/2006 04:43
Posted By: alfie1848

Posted On: 04/19/2006 04:57
Posted By: alfie1848

Posted On: 04/19/2006 04:10
Posted By: alfie1848

Posted On: 01/04/2008 08:04
Posted By: boltonuv

This "Scumbag of the Week" article is irresponsible. I had not trouble at all in receiving the following response from SpamArrest:

"Hi James,

Thank you for your email.

James, what you see there is absolutely wrong and is done to misguide our users and our new customers from Spam Arrest. We have over 1.5 million customers with us including you. You have been with us for a very long time, James. You can check with any of your contacts whether they have received any junk emails from us. We never do such a thing and its completely against our ethics! We hate spam as much as you do and so, along with stopping it, we make sure that none of our customer's emails are noted as spam. We warn our customers from sending bulk emails about the fact that their contacts might misunderstand their bulk emails as spam and will turn against them and Spam Arrest. A company following only such healthy practices can never do such a thing like spamming. What we value the most is our customer's trust and we will make all efforts to retain that in the best way possible. We never admit your personal information to any third party under whatsoever circumstances. You will find a whole lot of misleading things like this in Internet, James. We have friends and foes like anyone else in this planet.

I hope you will understand us the best way possible, James. Please do let me know if you need any further clarifications regarding this.

Best Regards,
Peter
Technical Support Specialist
Spam Arrest"

In the 3 years that I have used SpamArrest, I personally have never received one complaint from anyone that has been 'spammed' from any theoretical 'spam list' that SpamArrest may have created. I think that their statement above makes it clear that they would not do this.

I behooves you to publish a retraction.

Jim Bolton

Add your own comment ....

We accept comments to Gazette Articles only by registered JimWorld.com members. If you are not yet a member, please join now. Membership is free, and entitles you to not only post comments here, but also to participate in our discussion forums, as well as other areas of the JimWorld.com network.

If you are currently a JimWorld member, your userid and password will allow you to login with the form below.

Forget your password?

Password

gazette

Changes Afoot !

JimWorld Member comments and feedback ...

Add your own comment ....

Sponsored Links