1. Always use in development and in staging highest error reporting level, and display_errors ON:
error_reporting(-1);
ini_set('display_errors', 1);
2. Fix every warning or notice that occur.
3. Check regularly server’s error_log for notices/warnings
4. Identify any temporary hack with a special mark. Maybe something like:
#@TODO masterpiece by @smartguy, to quick fix the division by zero
5. Each function must do a single task. If is log in the user and record the login in stats table, be nice and create a separate function for ‘record the login’ stuff.
Maybe even a distinct class for stats ?
6. Use a version control system. SVN is NOT dead.
7. Use an IDE . Aptana 2, Aptana 3, Eclipse, even Zend Studio .
8. Know your IDE: code snippets, code assist, integration with Zend Framework, SVN integration, bug tracker integration, and so on
3 Comments
Todd
Seriously? There’s not even a hint of unit testing here. To be professional, you have to use an IDE, but you don’t have to test that your classes work?
Julian
Oh, unit tests are at a different level. A different story
Daniël
You forgot about one of the most important rules: “never trust user input”.