defaults write com.apple.mail DisableDataDetectors YES

Restart Mail, and no more 100% CPU.

<?php $rowClass = '#f0f0f0' ?>
<table>
<?php foreach($this->books as $book) { ?>
   <?php $i = 0; ?>
   <tr class = "<?php echo $rowClass ?>">
      <td><?php echo $book['author'] ?></td>
   </tr>
   <?php
      if ($i % 2 == 0)
         $rowClass = '#ffffff';
      else
         $rowClass = '#f0f0f0';
      $i++;
    ?>
<?php } ?>
</table>

Zebra tables! Written like a five year old!

For a split second I longed for Smarty’s {cycle} function. Does ZF have something similar? Well of course it does, and it’s even has the word ‘cycle’ in it!

<? $cycle=$this->cycle(array("#F0F0F0","#FFFFFF"));?>
<? foreach ($this->books as $book):?>
  <tr style="background-color:<?=$cycle->next()?>">
  <td><?=$this->escape($book['author']) ?></td>
</tr>
<? endforeach;?>

As a sidenote: ZF’s view helpers are so_much_cleaner than Smarty’s custom functions…

<table>
<?php foreach($tableData as $dataRow) { ?>
   <tr>
   <?php foreach($dataRow as $data) { ?>
      <td><?php echo $data; ?></td>
   <?php } ?>
   </tr>
<?php } ?>
</table>

When I discovered PHP’s alternate syntax, it just made sense. Especially if one keeps the alternate syntax in the view script only. And I think the syntax itself is much easier for The Designer (who doesn’t know/care about anything that is PHP) to understand:

<table>
<? foreach($tableData as $dataRow): ?>
   <tr>
   <? foreach($dataRow as $data): ?>
      <td><?= $data ?></td>
   <? endforeach; ?>
   </tr>
<? endforeach; ?>
</table>

And at the same time I don’t get asked those endless ‘what the hell does {section} mean?’ questions anymore.

<table>
<?php foreach($tableData as $dataRow) { ?>
   <tr>
   <?php foreach($dataRow as $data) { ?>
      <td><?php echo $data; ?></td>
   <?php } ?>
   </tr>
<?php } ?>
</table>

Yes that’s right. PHP code mixed with the HTML markup. It’s a far cry from the neatly formatted Smarty templates that I’ve been working with the past 2-3 months.

There are three places where I usually see this kind of ‘unfortunate’ code:

1. PHP for dummies books
2. Templating systems
3. Ajax payloads from the server

A free cookie to the first reader to guess correctly which category The Project falls in.

Although there’s a good reason why much the codebase is written like the above, that justification doesn’t make working with it any easier. Case in point: I spent the better part of this afternoon pulling my hair out trying to figure out why a block of HTML wasn’t showing up and it was all because I misplaced a </div> insde a triple nested <foreach> structure.

Not the best way to spend your afternoon. Especially during the first week of a new job…

However a similiar position at another company has been generously arranged for you. It’s just a matter of you accepting. And as tempting as it is for you to sit a home all day and collect six months worth of employment insurance, you accept.

And that’s how I got a new job.

In case anybody’s wondering: This new position entails me to use the same set of technologies that I’m familiar with (PHP, Javascript, HTML, Ajax). The new workplace is even the same type of workplace environment (even down to the machines itself). So really it just feels like I’m been assigned to a different development team more than anything else.