Nessa's Blog: Using PHP to Display Version Info
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Nessa has two posts that talk about how to use PHP to display the versions of software running on the local machine.   I've been working on this application for work that does some simple server reporting, part of which involves displaying the versions of major software running on the machines. [...] I need to be aware of this to make sure that customers are being moved to servers with compatible versions. It's also good in tracking and planning upgrades.   In the first post she recommends using the exec function in PHP to run system commands to get things like the cpanel version, python version and what perl you have installed.   Part two shows a little bit different way to get some of the same information - using the data in the /proc/version file as a single resource to get OS information.
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On the O'Reilly OnLamp.com blog, chromatic voices some concerns about the latest PHP statistics being released.   It's been three months since PHP Versions in the Wild. What does Nexen report about PHP version adoption statistics for November? [...] Nexen's PHP Adoption Stats for November 2006 show that PHP 4.4 has surpassed PHP 4.3. PHP 5 is in the double-digits, but it's still a fraction of PHP 4's popularity, despite its climb.   He also comments that, for those working towards a PHP6 release, it "must be frustrating" to see PHP5 adoption having taken such a long time to really get a foothold.    Developers and users alike were comfortable in their PHP4 world and didn't want to branch out to this newfangled thing that is PHP5. They hear stories of how it breaks things and only causes trouble and don't want to make the move. But finally, some brave souls put their feet in the water, saw that there were no piranhas in sight and dove right in. Thankfully, more and more have followed them hearing the success and ease with which PHP5 has made things in their applications.   So, what's your excuse? Why haven't you made the switch? And will you follow those leader's example and dive right into PHP6 when it comes around?
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Pierre-Alain Joye has a little reminder posted to his blog today about two posts from planet-debian and Apache that refer to clones/references in PHP4 and PHP5 and some of the misconceptions presented there.   Reading planet-debian and Apache (from Sven and David), I catched two posts about clones and references in php4 and php5. I do not think it is worth to explain again everything here as Sara wrote a very good post already, check it out here.   He mentions his annoyance with articles/posts like these and the impact that it has on PHP as well as the person posting.   I wonder when the OS community in general will be mature enough to stop bitching at each other. And that's valid for PHP developers, gnome-kde and other well established wars.
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Pierre-Alain Joye has three different posts to his blog about the releases of new versions (or new software) he's posted recently - a new release candidate for GD, the new Hidef extension in PECL, and a bug release for the zip extension.    The first post concerns the Zip extension release and which of the provided libraries you should use with your PHP installation (he recommends the latest PECL version over the included version). There's also a link to the new release - 1.8.6 The second post is an announcement about the publishing of the Hidef extension into the PECL library. It can be used to do a "one time declare" of constants in your application, working with a configuration file to only load them the first time the browser hits the site/application. Finally, in the newest of the posts, Pierre points out a brand new release candidate for GD 2.0.35 to two possible correct race conditions. You can download this new release here: tar.gz file, tar.bz2 file
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The latest edition of PHP Magazine's PHPBarnstormer has been released - Issue #23.
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Popular posts from PHPDeveloper.org for the past week:PHP-Coding-Practices.com: Try-Catch Syntax WeirdnessPHPBuilder.com: Cross-Platform Database PHP DevelopmentIBM developerWorks: Java and PHP technology on AIX - Integrate the Java business application w/ DB2OpenSourceCommunity.org: What do you think makes a good CMS?Jonathan Snook's Blog: Elemental: Conditional Content with CakePHPDevShed: The Basics of Using the Factory Pattern in PHP 5Builder.com.au: PHP exploit code plants itself in GIFJohn Cox's Blog:  Linux.com Now PHP PoweredNick Halstead's Blog: Solving Programming ProblemsPHP-Tools Blog: Testing FIT
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Michael Kimsal has posted a formal prediction that a patch, created by someone in the community, will emerge making it simple to bridge the gap between PHP4 and PHP5 applications.   Given the high number of shared hosts still running PHP4, the backwards compatibility issues going from 4->5 (yes, there are some!) and the new PHP4 "end of life" date (8/8/8), someone will likely find a way to make these run together, and possibly even charge money for it.   He suggests that many hosts out there would happily pay a sum to get this kind of functionally for their customers. It would provide a solution to customers who just don't understand the force towards PHP5 and would make them (and their PHP4 applications) happier.
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In another quick note from Chris Shiflett, there's a summary of php|works and some of the comments made about it:
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Ligaya Turmelle has relayed some great news in her latest blog entry, something that the web's been needing for a long time - a new group from the W3C created specifically for enhancing the HTML standard.   Now I have to admit to being curious about what is going on - after all anything new dealing with the web affects me as PHP coder. Since the W3C is supposedly interested in input from the Web community and content developers, I decided to see who from PHP would be there. Granted it is very early for the formation of the group so it didn't really surprise me to see no one from PHP that I know or heard about in there, but I wonder if anyone from the PHP Group will become a "invited expert" somewhere down the road.   The group is looking for members to help define this next generation of markup on the web. Check out their page for some of the qualifications needed to participate and for some of the upcoming events.W3C Launches New HTML Working Group
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New versions of both generations of the PHP language have been released today - versions 5.2.1 and 4.4.5:   The PHP development team would like to announce the immediate availability of PHP 5.2.1 and availability of PHP 4.4.5. These releases are major stability and security enhancements of the 5.x and 4.4.x branches, and all users are strongly encouraged to upgrade to it as soon as possible. Further details about the PHP 5.2.1 release can be found in the release announcement for 5.2.1, the full list of changes is available in the ChangeLog for PHP 5. Details about the PHP 4.4.5 release can be found in the release announcement for 4.4.5, the full list of changes is available in the ChangeLog for PHP 4.   You can find what updates were made in each of the releases in their appropriate changelogs and from the main PHP.net website.
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The International PHP Magazine has posted results from their latest poll conducted over this past week asking which, of their given options, is the best helpful hint for creating a web application in PHP.   Two of the options ranked higher than the rest with one (Page/object caching) coming out on top of the other (Don't save performance testing for the end of the project). The remainder of the votes were divided pretty evenly between the last three options: "Use multi result set queries to your database", "gzip compression", and "Tune your web server".   While you're in the polling mood, you should check out this week's new poll that wonders which of their options might be the biggest hindrance to PHP5's adoption in the community.
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Latest PHPClasses.org Releases:Nweb ImageLeast Squares FitCalendar CalculationsParagraphGDColorSimple EnumerationFile Exchange ProtocolFind dateNaf_ValidatorGeneric Form classMulti Threaded Daemon
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Here's what was popular in the PHP community one year ago today:PHP-Tools Blog: New releases of patTemplate and patFormsPrism-Perfect.net: PHP Tag Cloud TutorialPHPit.net: Building a simple MVC system with PHP5Alan Knowles' Blog: Code Reviewing.Nefarious Designs: Object-Oriented PHP Part 1: DefinitionWaxJelly Blog: Using PHP to make a MySQL "abstraction layer"php|architect: Introduction to PHPUnitNefarious Designs: Object-Oriented PHP Part 2: RelationshipsJohn Mertic's Blog: PHP Windows Installer updated for PHP 5.2.0RC2 and moreDevShed: Reading, Writing and Creating Files in PHPPHPKitchen: Seagull 0.6.0 ReleasedThinkPHP Blog: Make the download of large files with PHP (and lighty) very easyPeter Goodman's Blog: Observers and DispatchersRyan Malesevich's Blog: WP Plugins: WP-ChunkPHP.net: PHP 5.1.6 Released
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Travis Swicegood is teasing us with some output from a script in his latest blog post:   So my free time of late (what there is of it) has been spent on a project that's getting really close to v0.1 release. In other words, its first functional release. If you've ever run a test using the PEAR installer or know what a .phpt file looks like, you might be able to guess what I've been up.   Keep an eye on his blog for more information on his "secret project".
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Latest PHPClasses.org Releases:Google Total ResultsAJAX WrapperCron Tab EvalLDAP Address BookYouTubeSerializerBrowserDetectionPHP Tag CloudImeemacurlAuto-Gen CSS Formsadebug
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Michael Kimsal has posted some more thoughts on what he calls the "sad state of PHP development" pointing out some of the practices of the PHP group surrounding the development of the language.   Every few months there's a release, whether large or small, which introduces new features and bug fixes. However, with every release also comes fears of tiny, sometimes undocumented, changes that break existing code, and often for no solid reason other than someone with commit access decided they liked the 'new' way better than the old way.   He points out a specific example, get_object_vars and how its return values were changed in an earlier release as well as the update to glob made recently to change its return types.    In his opinion:   No changes should be made to the PHP core without an issue being opened, either in the 'bug' tracker or some other issues tracker.   Be sure to check out the comments for other great opinions on the topic.
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Scott Mattocks is back with the latest installment of the PHP-GTK news, issue number 22.   It's been a while, but I finally have some time to get back to summing up the world of PHP-GTK. Things have slowed down a little in the past few months on the development side but that doesn't mean that the world of PHP-GTK 2 has stood still.   In this edition, there's a call for help for anyone that would want to join the other (4!) developers in working on the PHP-GTK 2 project as well as some general information about the project and its involvement in the community - from talks at php/db|works, International PHP Conference, and the Zend/PHP Conference to the many PHP-GTK-related articles being printed to a new online resource for PHP-GTK tutorials.