[2] #20YearsOfPHP – Let’s Hear It From Ben Ramsey

What Is This About?

This is the 2nd serie of our #20YearsOfPHP ! YES $this->year[‘2015’] needs to be over-brimmed with lots and lots of love and happiness to celebrate this amazing unique moment.

All that PHP has achieved today, is the hard work of myriads of PHP rockstar from all over the world. It’s also because of a super-fantastic group (they know who they are!) of dedicated people who are doing their utmost best to keep shaping, giving consistence to and above all safeguarding the magical community that is The PHP Community!

To each and everyone of YOU #phpc fans / lovers / admirers /well-wishers, THANK YOU for everything you are doing to give this community the sweet taste it is having. A BIG THANK YOU also for ALL the internal PHP core who are spending countless hours of their life in pushing PHP the language to the next milestone in each new release (btw GoPHP7 !!!). You are all truly and magically awesome!

Life! My life without #phpc, is… like a cup of tea without sugar! Like a Michelangelo van Dam without Coffee for a day! ~ @7php

Refreshing Your Mind quickly..

As most of you know, PHP celebrated it’s 20th birthday on the 8th June 2015.
Chris Cornutt did an awesome task of maintaining a list of all the PHP stories of people who are part and parcel of PHPc – see the whole list here (click)!
Here over 7PHP, I’m taking this a step further by interviewing some of the PHP rockstars about what they have to say about #20YearsOfPHP

Previously:

• [1] – #20YearsOfPHP – Let’s Hear It From Cal Evans

Aand Now Let’s Hear From Ben Ramsey

>> Hi Ben, please introduce yourself to my 7PHP readers..

I’ve been developing PHP applications for about fifteen years and have been involved in the PHP community for about twelve. I started the PHP user group in Atlanta in 2004 and gave my first talk at a PHP conference in 2005.

Since then, I’ve moved on to Nashville and rebooted the user group here; I’ve written numerous articles for _php[architect]_ and have contributed to a couple of books; I’ve organized a couple of conferences; I’ve given about 100 talks over the last ten years; and I’ve found ways to make various small contributions to open source projects over the years, including the PHP project.

I feel it’s important for web developers to understand and use effectively HTTP, so I’ve spent a fair amount of my speaking and writing career teaching developers how HTTP works.

>> The first PHP Person that you met & that probably played a vital part in your PHP life

I believe the very first PHP person I met in real life was [Andrei Zmievski](http://zmievski.org/). We met while checking into the hotel for the International PHP Conference Spring Edition in 2005.

>> If you look back at the previous 20yrs, what is the one lesson that you’ve learned:

– by using PHP as a language

The PHP manual is one of the best resources ever compiled by a programming language documentation team. Use it liberally.

– by sticking to PHP as a community

I’ve met some of my best friends through my involvement in the PHP community. It’s one of the most welcoming programming language communities I know. Of course,

I’m biased, having been in this community for so long. The community has changed a lot over the years, but that welcoming aspect remains central to it.

>> One reason why PHP has survived and even transcend itself into success since the last 20yrs

The community.

>> Your message to New PHPers who will join us now looking forward for the next 20yrs

Get involved in the community. Join your local PHP user group. Get on Freenode IRC and chat with people in #phpc. Attend a PHP conference.