I took part in developing WordPress 3.8 ( Not really! )

WordPress 3.8 is out. Dan Bernardic ( me ) is listed as one of the “188 contributors with props in this release” of WordPress. While that is flattering, I think it is misleading, so I feel the need to publicly make that clear. There almost certainly isn’t a single line of code in WordPress 3.8 that I’ve written. Perhaps next time!

The reason I am listed there is that I tried to contribute to development of a plugin that was revamping one of the WP admin screens called the “Dashboard”. I did not end up contributing anything useful that I am aware of, partly due to lack of time, but perhaps more so because it was not fun enough for me. I tend to find time for things that I find to be fun.

Does anyone in Winnipeg wanna get their feet wet with TDD in PHP?

There is a really cool intro to TDD “kata” on Roy Osherove’s website: TDD Kata 1. I’d be available to go through an implementation with PHP. It is a very nice way to get familiar with some ideas in test-driven development, because it is very beginner-level.

I just suggested this meetup on the Winnipeg PHP UG meetup page: http://www.meetup.com/Winnipeg-PHP/events/155430762/ . Please RSVP “Yes” if you’re interested – 2 RSVPs and it gets announced to everyone through the meetup group.

Sometimes it’s about attitude, or “You don’t really know the future”

I like the distinction between fellow Yugoslavian Gojko Adzic’s Specification by Example and fellow software developer Brian Marick’s Exploration Through Example.

Think about that for a minute.
The choice of exploration vs. specification captures something important and beautiful about the nature of software development. The discovery, learning, process of understanding… This aspect of software development is discussed in topics such as Emergent Design, and TDD.