Biography

Derick Rethans is a PHP internals expert, author of Xdebug and an OpenStreetMap and mapping enthusiast.

He has contributed in a number of ways to the PHP project, including the Xdebug debugging tool, and various extensions and additions. He's a frequent lecturer at conferences, the author of php|architect's Guide to Date and Time Programming, and the co-author of PHP 5 Power Programming. He is now working at MongoDB, where he works on the PHP, C, and C++ drivers for MongoDB, and date/time related server features.

In his spare time, he likes to travel, hike, ski and practise photography. You can reach him at derickREMOVE-NO-@SPAMderickrethans.nl

Timeline

April 2012 -: PHP Engineer and Evangelist; I am the "voice" of PHP, on both the MongoDB team and within the broader MongoDB community. I am responsible for supporting MongoDB in the PHP ecosystem through driver development, integration with open source tools, community support, and developer advocacy.

February 2010 - March 2012

I'm a self-employed contractor/consulting doing PHP and C projects.

Some of those projects include:

The QuickHash and StumbleCache extensions for StumbleUpon.
Senior PHP Developer/Systems Architect at PlumWillow.
The camouflage PHP extension for TEQneers.
Developing the camouflage PHP encoding extension into Camouflage Encoder as part of Anderskor Ltd.
The twig PHP extension for Sensio Labs.
Maintaining the MongoDB PHP driver for MongoDB.

July 2005 - January 2010: Working as project leader for the eZ Components project, eZ Systems AS in Norway.
June 2009 - October 2009: Serving on the board of directors for eZ Systems AS in Norway.
January 2004 - June 2005: Working as core-developer on eZ publish, eZ Systems AS in Norway.

May 2002 - recent: Working on Xdebug, the PHP debugging and development assistent extension.
November 2001 - recent: Speaker at numerous conferences, seminars and usergroup meetings around the world.
August 1999 - recent: Joined the PHP development team and submitted my first patch: SWF support for getimagesize(). Since then I've been continiously contributing to the PHP project. I was release manager for PHP 4.1.1, various PHP 4.2.x releases and the PHP 4.4 series.
May 2004 - Dec 2005: Helping out with the Zend Certification process in order to boost enterprise support for PHP.

January 2001 - December 2003: Working on countless projects for my own company, JDI Media Solutions.
October 1998: Founded JDI Media Solutions with two other class-mates to provide internet services to local customers.

June 1997 - October 1998: Did tech support for customers of PC Privé projects for Diabolo Informatisering.
October 2002 - January 2004: Editor-in-chief of the International PHP Magazine managing content and themes of issues.

May 2001: Received my Bachelors degree in CS and Information Technology.
1997 - 2001: Attended the Hogeschool van Arnhem en Nijmegen to study Computer Science.
1991 - 1997: Went to highschool at the Thomas à Kempis College.

(since September 2004)

April 2009: php|architect's Guide to Date and Time Programming, Derick Rethans, ISBN: 978-0-9810345-0-8
October 2004: PHP 5 Power Programming, Andi Gutmans, Stig Sæther Bakken, Derick Rethans, ISBN: 0-13-147149-X

June 2013: "Introduction to Document Databases with MongoDB", Web & PHP, June 2013
Januari - March 2009: 3-part column in php|architect about PHP's Garbage Collection mechanism
Februari 2006: "eZ components", php|architect, Februari 2006, page 27 to 35
January 2005: "Transliteration with PHP", php|architect, January 2005
June 2005: "References: an in-depth look", php|architect, June 2005 [PDF]
December 2004: "Translittération en PHP", direction|php, December 2004, page 27 to 33
September 2004: "Debugging Questions and Xdebug Answers", php|architect, September 2004, page 9 to 22 [PDF]

December 13, 2015 — Royal Parks Winter 10km series - Regent's Park: 10 km in 51m49s (5m11s/km)
September 15, 2015 — Run the River 2015: 5 km in 24m56s (4m59s/km)
September 6, 2015 — Kew Gardens 10K: 10 km in 49m17s (4m56s/km)
July 12, 2015 — British 10K London Run: 10 km in 55m47s (5m34s/km)
June 4, 2015 — JP Morgan Corporate Challenge: 3.2 miles (5.15 km) in 28m53s (5m37s/km)
April 12, 2015 — The Race Organiser - Hyde Park 10k: 10 km in 59m13s (5m55s/km)