Weekly roundup: Matlab is ugly

I'm working more and more with Matlab for some university projects. If you want to know why PHP is successful, you can look at Matlab for a similar scenario.
PHP sometimes requires an ugly syntax and many inconsistencies, but it has so many extensions and batteries-included features (datetime extension, shipped database drivers) that you can get things done very easily.
Matlab it's the same on the engineering's scale: it's probably the only language designed by someone who does not know that arrays are universally accessed by square brackets [] and not by parentheses (). However, it has so many built-in goodness that you can rectify an image with 10 lines of code, if you know what you're doing.

Here are my original articles published this week on DZone.
Practical PHP Testing Patterns: Layer Test
Zend_Glossary, an hands-on glossary about the terms used in Zend Framework, like filter, validator, boostrap, etc.
Practical PHP Testing Patterns: Test Method
Meaningless docblocks considered harmful, which explains why you should not misuse your docblocks.