Interview - Kevin Yank of SitePoint.com

SP: Some PHP developers tend to compare ASP.NET with PHP and get confused about capabilities of the .NET framework. Do you care to chime in on this?

PHP is a server-side scripting language. ASP.NET is an object-oriented framework for Web application development. By its very nature, PHP is better suited to small-to-medium Web scripting tasks, while ASP.NET is better suited to enterprise-level Web applications.

That said, if you know and are comfortable with PHP, and it's able to consistently meet your needs, then you need not worry about ASP.NET.

SP: Do you prefer .NET or J2EE? Why?

I love the platform independence of J2EE, and for that reason it remains my first choice and recommendation for enterprise Web development. The .NET Framework is easier for developers to use, and more highly adapted to some of today's common Web application development problems. If the next version of J2EE doesn't up the ante in this area before the Mono Project produces something usable, my preference might switch in the near future.

SP: Tell us about Editize. What is it? Why did you write it? And why should I, the common developer, use it?

Oh I see. Shameless plug time, is it? Well if you insist... Editize was originally called "The Octopus Editor", and was created as a way to save our then-new editor, Georgina, from succumbing to carpal tunnel syndrome. In truth, I just felt guilty about sending her my articles in Word format with a bazillion inline code fragments that she would have to go through and tag by hand!

The first version was a real hit around the office, and our designers immediately saw the value it would add to some of our Web design clients' sites. "If we had a tool like this to offer all our clients," they reasoned, "we'd have a competitive advantage when bidding against other design firms!" So I began work on a more generalized version that produced HTML code instead of our own proprietary tag language; this product was dubbed RapidEdit.

From the reaction of our first client, we knew we were onto a winner. Releasing it to the developer community was the next logical step. Now you can get the same competitive advantage over other Web design firms that our designers have enjoyed. Just don't bid against us on a project, okay?

The Book

SP: Now let's talk about "the book". "Build Your Own Database Driven Website Using PHP & MySQL" is a hugely popular tome of knowledge that has successfully kickstarted many a PHP developer's career. My first question about this is... do you realize just how much trouble you've caused?

Why, whatever do you mean...? Actually, around the office, we like to joke that the book gives readers just enough rope to hang themselves with! Wherever possible in the book I try to insist on good programming practice, but readers tend to get so excited about what the book lets them do that they sometimes skip right over important chapters like "Relational Database Design". I've seen some pretty ugly database layouts in my email inbox since the publication of the book!

SP: Do you plan to release a revised edition that takes into account changes in PHP such as register_globals being disabled?

Definitely. A revised edition of the book is what I plan to focus my energies on next month.

SP: How many questions do you get on an average day regarding the book?

It's come way down thanks to Tom Rutter, better known as MMJ to the SitePoint Forums audience. He's recently taken over answering support emails about the book and Editize. I only get one or two a day in my personal inbox these days.

SP: If there's one question you answer all the time and you'd like to give a once-and-for-all answer to, what would it be?

No I do not want to know how I can make $500,000 a year selling Viagra from my home! Thanks for asking!

SP: You're also co-editor of a PHP book released by Wrox Press. How did this work? Did you have a particular section you worked on? How did you land that gig?

I've actually served as technical editor on several Wrox titles, "Beginning PHP4" and "Professional PHP4" among them. Basically what would happen is the lead editor of the book would send me draft chapters that had been submitted by the various authors for the book. I'd have a few days to rip each of these submissions to shreds for technical clarity, accuracy, and questionable parentage.

My comments would then go back to the author, who would re-work the chapter to fix the problems identified by my review before the chapter was sent to the general editors, who would clean up things like spelling and grammar.

The job came out of my original work on the PHP/MySQL article series that became my book. Someone at Wrox noticed my expertise in the field and asked if I'd be interested in doing some work as a technical reviewer. It was fun seeing my name in the credits of a "real" technical book, but I've since quit editing for Wrox to make time for other priorities.