I’ll be giving a talk ‘automated PHP code audits‘ to the 010php user group, in Rotterdam. “Even nowadays, PHP code is mostly manually audited. Expert pore over actual code, in search for bugs or code smells. Actually, it is possible to have PHP do this work itself ! Strengthened with the internal Tokenizer, bolstered by […]
04
Sep
Sep
Unit test is a part of daily coding, and once you have reached the critical mass, it is just not possible to go on without them. They spot bugs efficiently and systematically, and it is reassuring to have more and more of them. This is also why I started using a random suite for unit tests. […]
31
Aug
Aug
Switch statements in PHP link a situation (the cases) to code to be executed. Just like this : switch ($a) { case ‘a’ : /* code here */ case ‘b’ : /* code here */ default : /* code here */ } Duplicate code in switch statements With the size of the switch, it is easy to miss that cases […]
20
Jun
Jun
Detecting dead code in PHP PHP applications are under constant evolution. The code tents to grow bigger, more complex, and finally, to collect dust : this also know as dead code. Dead code is actual code that is not being used in production, even if the code is deployed. It is important to remove dead code. Missing […]
It is difficult to avoid the world cup yesterday. Since I’m not a football fan, but rather a PHP fan, I checked which technologies are in use for the national team. I got the list of the 32 national team, then checked they website. The great news is : PHP is a clear winner. Out of […]
The audit report contains several parts : the main part is the diagnostic, and the secondary part is the appinfo. Let’s review them. The diagnostic The diagnostic collect all information in the code that needs to be reviewed, and probably fixed. The diagnostic has 3 parts : the dashboard, the full list and the detailed report. The […]
Defining a PHP method is quite standard : a function only requires a name and arguments. The arguments are its signature, just like this : function x($arg1, $arg2, $arg3) {} Arguments may, among other things, have default value. When this is the case, the arguments has to be at the end of the signature. Thus, function goodSignature($arg1, […]
27
May
May
Reviewing code is like checking your own copy before handing in an exam : last exam I took was driving test (incredible, I know), and I passed by 0 the 100 questions quiz. I do remember changing three or four answers while reviewing the answers, and even as I don’t know for sure about it, I […]
08
May
May
When programming, I devote a part of my time to review the code. Of course, there is the necessary review when a bug arise, but I’m talking here about self-review. It feels always good to re-read fresh code, make sure I didn’t forget anything, may it be security, performance, recent PHP or framework recommendations. […]
Auditing code is actually a fancy word for reading the code. Sometimes, I even wonder if a programmer isn’t reading code more often than write. Good piece of code will be written once, and changed seldom afterwards. Bad piece of code will be reviewed, re-read for debugging, and sometimes forgotten : this is when we spend […]