Derick Rethans
Software Engineer at Derick Rethans Ltd.
London, England, United Kingdom
Summary
🤩
Rockstar🎓
Top SchoolDerick Rethans is a C-focused software engineer and PHP internals expert with 24 years of experience, best known as the creator and long-time maintainer of Xdebug and a contributor to core PHP (including Date/Time extension and multiple release management roles). He runs Derick Rethans Ltd., consults on PHP extensions, and currently works on improving the language at the PHP Foundation while continuing active stewardship of Xdebug development (now Xdebug 3). His open-source footprint spans high-profile projects—php.net, MongoDB PHP drivers and library, and Twig—where he contributes deep C-level fixes, APM instrumentation, and protocol/spec documentation. A frequent conference speaker, author of a guide on date/time programming and co-author of PHP 5 Power Programming, he combines practical tooling with protocol-level improvements and clear technical writing. Based in London, he also applies organizational skills in community roles (long-term maintainer, podcast host, and local political secretary), bringing both technical depth and community leadership to PHP ecosystem work.
24 years of coding experience
13 years of employment as a software developer
Thomas á Kempis CollegeBSc Information Technology, BSc Information Technology at HAN University of Applied Sciences
Dutch, Norwegian, German, English, Swedish, Welsh, Scottish Gaelic
Stackoverflow
36,019reputation
2.7mreached
801answers
1question
debugging
top-5%
mongoose
top-5%
phpstorm
top-1%
elasticsearch
top-5%
ubuntu
top-5%
xampp
top-5%
Github Skills (59)
debugging10
debug10
webconfig10
gridfs10
nosql10
api-design10
databases10
database-administration10
template-engine10
c1110
xdebug10
mongodb-database10
apm10
c1710
php10
Programming languages (21)
Github contributions (5)
xdebug/xdebug
Apr 2002 - Jan 2023
Xdebug — Step Debugger and Debugging Aid for PHP
Role in this project:
Back-end Developer
Back-end DeveloperContributions:3 releases, 24 reviews, 5450 commits in 21 years
Contributions summary:Derick's contributions primarily involved modifying the Xdebug extension's code to improve features and address bugs. This included enhancing the information displayed in traces and debugging, incorporating support for new features, and addressing crash issues related to these features. The commits show the user working with the core C code of the Xdebug extension, interacting with the internals of PHP.
xdebugphpaiddebuggingdebug
mongodb/mongo-php-driver-legacy
Aug 2010 - May 2016
Legacy MongoDB PHP driver
Role in this project:Back-end Developer & Database Engineer
Back-end Developer & Database EngineerContributions:5 releases, 1708 commits, 41 PRs in 5 years 10 months
Contributions summary:Derick made several commits focused on addressing bugs and improving the stability and performance of the legacy MongoDB PHP driver. Their contributions included fixing test cases after message format changes, implementing exception handling for batch inserts, and updating limits based on server information. The commits show a deep understanding of the driver's internals, focusing on enhancing the handling of data storage limits and the interaction with the MongoDB server's API.
driverphp-driverphpphp-mongodbmongodb-driver
Find and Hire Top DevelopersWe’ve analyzed the programming source code of over 60 million software developers on GitHub and scored them by 50,000 skills. Sign-up on Prog,AI to search for software developers.