This is one of those posts that will continue to get updated periodically.

I’ve been asked to describe my software development philosophy (and variations thereof) often, so I’ll just keep this here as a list.

• The right tool for the right job. A “PHP programmer”, to me, is like a “screwdriver plumber” or a “hammer carpenter”. First, figure out the problem you are trying to solve, then, pick the tool.
• Do not reinvent the wheel.
  • It is likely that others solved a similar problem. There may be solutions out there already, in the form of libraries, SaaS, FOSS or commercial offerings, etc. Those are likely to have gone through extensive testing in real life. Use them. Your case is not unique, nor are you that smart.
  • You are not that smart.
    • Beware Dunning-Kruger and unknown unknowns
  • Consider buying (borrowing, cloning, licensing) rather than rolling your own
• Engineering is an art of tradeoffs. Time for space, technical debt for time to market, infrastructure costs for customer acquisition, etc.
• Abstractions leak.
• The following things are hard. However, they have been solved and tested and worked for years, if not decades. Learn to use them:
  • Calendars and timezones
  • Character encodings, Unicode, etc.
  • L10n & I18n in general
  • Relational databases
  • Networking (as in OSI)
  • Operating systems