We are happy to introduce you Stefan Koopmanschap (@skoop), co-founder of PHPBenelux, now active in the PFZ.nl events team , symfony community manager.

He will give a session at phpDay called “A Practical Look At Symfony2” Saturday  May 19th at 12 am on track 1.

The interview:

Things that you consider before choosing a framework for a project?
Many things. Of course the project. Not every framework fits every project. Also, who will be working on it? The team determines much of the choice. If you prefer Symfony2, but your team has extensive Zend Framework knowledge, a project that is on a tight deadline will not be the right project to make the switch to Symfony2.

What should i learn next?
Everything! ;)
This really depends on what you’re working on, and what problems you need to solve. I’ve recently been looking a lot into Composer, as it solves a problem (dependency management) that I encounter in many projects. I’ve also been digging into Cilex, a CLI application framework, as I need to write some CLI processing applications. So, look at what you’re working on, and try to predict what the next thing will be that you need. If you can not figure something out, just look at what technology looks interesting, and pick something.

What are your thoughts about functional programming?
It has it’s place, but it’s still used in too many places where OO would be a better fit.

Sheldon or Leonard?
Oh man, a nearly impossible choice! I’ll go for Sheldon, but I couldn’t tell you why.

Who’s your programming hero?
Oh wow. Programming hero? This is a tough one. I really respect a lot of developers, but I don’t really idolize anyone (which is what the word “hero” seems to imply). But to pick a few that I really respect a lot: Matthew Weier O’Phinney, Fabien Potencier and Mike van Riel. What they do for Open Source and PHP is priceless.

What features would you like to see in the next PHP version?
I would love to see a bit of a clean-up. More consistency (needle/haystack anyone) and predictability. However, I know this won’t happen. It breaks too much BC, and most people seem to agree that the current way works well enough.

Who killed JFK?
It must’ve been Brain, with a little help from Pinky

What’s the average beer per hour factor during conferences and a normal hangout?
Depends on the conference and the people that are present. Mine is probably quite low, but I know enough people that have quite a high beer per hour factor at conferences.

What do you think about php 5.4 traits?
I honestly haven’t used it, haven’t needed to use it. And I usually start understanding new features once I’ve found a use for them.

Duran Duran or Spandau Ballet?
Duran Duran

What do you like and what not about php?
It gets the job done quickly, and it has the most awesome community. And there are so many cool open source tools available that make life so much easier. What I like less is the earlier mentioned inconsistency, and the flamewars that sometimes occur in the PHP community or between different frameworks.

Which opensource projects are you following the most?
Symfony2, obviously. Silex. Cilex, I’m starting to dig into Phing a bit. Composer. PHPDocumentor of course. And many more.

Did your love for programming cause you some troubles with your partner?
Hm, not my love for programming, but perhaps my love for attending/speaking at conferences. Being away from home so much can be hard on the family. Not just my wife, but also my kids. I’m not doing as many conferences anymore that I did last year. I actually wrote something about that in my PHP|Architect community column in December. Oh, and I’m bringing my wife to Verona :)

Suggest a book to read.
I’ve recently started reading “The Thoughtworks Anthology: Essays on Software Technology and Innovation”, by a variety of Thoughtworks employees. So far, I’m really liking it and learning a lot of stuff from it.

You can reach Stefan on twitter(@skoop) and on his blog.