Doc Holliday, Bonnie and Clyde, Butch Cassidy, Jesse James, and Billy the Kid. Each one immortalized in a seemingly endless number of films, songs, folklore, and even video games. In their time they were considered public enemy #1, today they’re often spoken of as heroes and trailblazers. These notorious outlaws are what turned the Wild Wild West(WWW) into the lawless land that it will always be remembered as.

But what about today’s WWW?

Today’s WWW(World Wide Web) is just as bedlam as the Wild Wild West of past. Each aforementioned lawless cowboy had their own way of acquiring their plunder just as today’s code cowboys each have their own way of crafting their code. With so many similarities between how both brands of cowboys perform their trade, how can the code cowboys of today keep themselves from going down the same path as the cowboys of the West and turning themselves into public enemy #1? Easy, PSRs.

What are PSRs?

PHP Standard Recommendations(PSRs) are what guide us php developers on how to craft our code. They don’t take away from our ability to code in our own style but they provide us with a set of common guidelines for us to follow. They touch nearly every aspect of a coding cycle from basic coding standards to more advanced security disclosures. PSRs are put together by the development community and voted into acceptance. This allows virtually anyone to suggest what they believe should be a standard coding practice to follow.

PSRs are constantly evolving and are currently maintained over at http://php-fig.org/psr/. So head on over there and take a look around. If you have any recommendations on a standard coding practice that we should all be following then don’t hesitate to propose it! Your suggestion may be just the thing to finally tame us code cowboys.