Let's see if I'll be able to keep my own promise to blog each day after ZendCon. crosses fingers I won't guarantee that they will be filled to the brim with details, but I'll do my best.
Javascript for PHP Developers - Ed Finkler
The first session that I attended today was Ed Finkler's talk about Javascript from a PHP developer's perspective. I had grabbed his slides and sample code from when he gave this talk during Tek-X earlier this year, but hearing him actually give the presentation was much nicer.
He gave a great overview of how base Javascript works and explained how it works compared to PHP. A while ago I attempted to work on an Appcelerator version of Spaz and it fell apart, partially due to my inability to grasp some of the basic functionality of Javascript. (After the session I spoke a bit with Ed, and he did say that his code was sub-par in some areas, but I couldn't tell :)) I might pick it back up after the conference.
I use jQuery in many of my projects, but after this session I feel a bit more confident if I need to work outside jQuery, and I understand a bit more about what is going on under the hood.
Blending PHP & MySQL with Your RPG Universe - Susan Gantner
After lunch I attended a session about integrating PHP and RPG code together. Like Ed's talk, Susan's was a good overview of PHP, MySQL, and RPG. I wished that her talk went over MySQL a bit more, but she has another session for that. Overall it was good to see that I am doing some things right.
I got a few tips for how to do things, but most of what she covered I had gone through within the last six months or so myself. I managed to meet a few people who were doing pretty heavy work with the iSeries and PHP, and I look forward to speaking with them later in the conference.
The Q&A; ended up being mostly with the Zend folks (not Susan's fault at all, everyone just kind of turned on poor Mike Pavlak with their Zend Server problems). If this session was any indication, the IBM i track this year should be good.
And Mike, if you read this, I promise to submit a support ticket for Zend Monitor.
Looking Forward to Day 2
Day 2 (for me) is the first day of the conference itself. I've also got a ZCE 5.3 test scheduled for the afternoon, so I've spent part of tonight studying for it. Tomorrow afternoon, I'll either be at the hotel bar drinking my sorrows away at failing or celebrating. Plus I heard there are some good sessions and I'm sure that I'll meet some great people.