Recently updated PIE extensions #4 (since August 21st, 2026) 25 PHP Pie extensions were updated. hmennen90/php-steamworks (v0.15.0): PHP extension providing access to the Valve Steamworks SDK via a flat C API symfony/deepclone (v0.8.3): Export any serializable PHP values as pure arrays – accelerator for Symfony’s DeepCloner php-debugger/php-debugger (0.3.0): A lightweight, high-performance PHP debugger extension. Comptible […]
26
Aug
Aug
The Path Not Taken: everything that can go wrong with a path A path is a string. And, just like concatenation, this is the source of all our troubles. PHP treats it as a string, the filesystem treats it as a sequence of bytes with opinions, and Windows treats it as a suggestion. Somewhere in […]
20
Aug
Aug
Recently updated PIE extensions (since August 13th, 2026) 25 PHP Pie extensions were updated. bsn4/grpc (v0.4.0): Rust-based gRPC extension for PHP — drop-in replacement for ext-grpc paragonie/ext-pqcrypto (v0.3.2): PHP extension for post-quantum cryptography (ML-KEM, X-Wing, ML-DSA, SLH-DSA) mongodb/mongodb-extension (2.4.0): MongoDB driver extension phalcon/cphalcon (v5.19.0): Phalcon is an open source web framework delivered as a C […]
06
Aug
Aug
Recently updated PIE extensions (since July 30th, 2026) #1 17 PHP Pie extensions were updated. php-debugger/php-debugger (0.2.3): A lightweight, high-performance PHP debugger extension. Comptible with Xdebug step-debugging. phalcon/cphalcon (v5.18.2): Phalcon is an open source web framework delivered as a C extension for the PHP language providing high performance and lower resource consumption. xberg-io/tree-sitter-language-pack (v1.14.3): Pre-compiled […]
15
Jul
Jul
flock() is a Suggestion, Not a Law I spend a fair amount of my professional life staring at static analysis reports for a living, and every so often a rule reminds me that I’ve been trusting a piece of the standard library a little too much. This week it was flock(). The original question was: […]
03
Jul
Jul
Using a vector database with PHP PHP has roughly 80 array functions: eight – zero. array_map, array_walk, array_reduce,array_filter, array_each… wait, that last one was deprecated and removed in PHP 7.2. Or not? And some new functions came up in PHP 8.5, last november. The real problem is discoverability. You know the task, “find the first […]
30
Jun
Jun
php-typos: A Fast Spellchecker for PHP Codebases (Tool Review) There’s a particular kind of embarrassment reserved for the typo that ships to production. A recievePayment() method. A config key spelled treshold. A comment that confidently explains the “lenght” of an array. None of it breaks anything, all of it makes the codebase look a little […]
25
Jun
Jun
Putting PHP’s M_EULER to Work PHP ships with more mathematical constants than most developers ever use. One of the most overlooked is M_EULER, which is the Euler constant. So, before putting PHP’s M_EULER to work, we need to clear up a confusion with another Euler constant in PHP: M_E. M_E vs M_EULER: Two Constants, Two […]
22
Jun
Jun
Also PHP: A Curated Watchlist for the PHP Ecosystem PHP runs more of the web than most people admit. And yet, when a new developer tool ships — a security scanner, an AI code assistant, a code counter, a refactoring engine: PHP support is often an afterthought, a footnote, or simply missing. Also supports PHP […]
20
Jun
Jun
Five Ways to Write a PHP Type PHP’s type system is grown up. PHP 7.0 started the ball rolling with parameter and return types. PHP 7.4 added property types. PHP 8.3 added the class constant types, though we’ll omit this for now. PHP has quietly accumulated five distinct syntaxes where you can write something that […]
17
Jun
Jun
PHP and AI: What Actually Exists at the Language Level PHP runs about three-quarters of the web, and yet whenever AI comes up in conversation, PHP is the friend who wasn’t invited to the party. The received wisdom is that AI belongs to Python and that PHP developers are limited to politely calling someone else’s […]