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SVN trunk, branches and tags

Monday, February 8th, 2010

In this post, I provide details about how I personnaly handle SVN trunk, branches and tags. This approach is also known as “branch always”, with minor differences. This might not be the best approach, but it will give beginners some explanations on what trunk, branches and tags are, and how to handle them.
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Posted in tips and tricks, tools | 17 Comments »

method_exists() vs. is_callable()

Sunday, January 3rd, 2010

One thing I often see when re-factoring PHP applications, is the improper use of the method_exists() function, and I think this needs a little bit of clarification.
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Posted in php5, tips and tricks | 2 Comments »

Simple introduction to SVN externals

Thursday, December 10th, 2009

Not so long ago, we’ve had to include a third-party library into a new project (using SVN). Our first idea (the one which did not imply thinking) was to SVN-export library files from the remote repository, paste them into the project, SVN-add them, then SVN-commit files.

Having to keep these library files up-to-date with official patches and improvements sounded like a full-time job.
This solution sucked.
A lot.
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Posted in tips and tricks, tools | No Comments »

Improving performance with return values caching

Wednesday, February 4th, 2009

Many functions (and methods) in a project will often provide the same return value for the same arguments, like:

  • mathematical functions:
function SomeMaths($x)
{
	return $x + pow($x, 3.2) - cos($x);
}
  • functions which retrieve content from a file:

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Posted in concepts and principles, design patterns, php, tips and tricks | 5 Comments »

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