If you’ve ever been a Java or C++ programmer, then you probably encountered some pretty strong opinions about object-oriented programming (OOP). And, if you’ve ever been online, I’m sure you’ve also seen similar strong opinions about the state of PHP and, perhaps, the mental acuity of those who choose to use it. If you’ve ever wondered what all the OOP hoopla was about and how it might be useful to us when programming in WordPress, then this is the session for you!
Dash has been writing object-oriented code for years. More pertinently, they’ve developed some extremely useful tools that you can use to get started in this world, too. Especially now that WordPress is recommending PHP 7.3, it’s time to learn about and play with all the new features of our language that we have in our toy box primarily those which could positively impact your theme and plugin development going forward.
After this session, you’ll have a good understanding of new PHP features like parameter and return type hinting, argument unpacking, and the spaceship operator (yeah, it’s a thing). We’ll also go over some basic OOP concepts like the SOLID development principles. Finally, we’ll take a quick look at how Dash uses some or all of these in developing themes and plugins.