John Mertic's Blog: PHP Windows Installer 1 year old
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According to a new post on John Mertic's blog the PHP Windows installer is celebrating its one year anniversary (as of July 24th, 2007).   I am always looking for any suggestions for improvements to the installer. I'm also curious how people are using it; is it just for personal development, or is there anyone using it to deploy to a group of desktops or servers?   According to the original message on the php.internals list, John based it off of the functionality of the installer of Phil Driscoll with extra features like selective installation of components, automatic configuration of the php.ini and that it's made as a MSI file (scriptable and open source).
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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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Here's what was popular in the PHP community one year ago today:onPHP5.com: Clickable, Obfuscated Email AddressesJacob Santos' Blog: PHP BlackjackThe Bakery: RESTful Web Services With CakePHPDeveloper.com: Developing a Ajax-driven Shopping Cart with PHP and PrototypeGreg Beaver's Blog: Mac OS X ships with security hole-laden PEAR - how to upgrade immediatelyNexen.net: English Articles and a Single Distribution ResourceJob Posting: Red Ventures Seeks Several LAMP Developers (Charlotte, NC)The Bakery: Checking for duplicate records (unique record)DevShed: The Basics of Abstract Factory Classes in PHP 5NewsForge.com: A DIY calendar control in PHPDevGuide.net: Dynamic Bitmap Graphics with PHP and GDRichard Heyes' Blog: Browser DetectionInternational PHP Magazine: Poll Question: Which is the Most Important Feature of PHP 5?Builder.au: Dynamic XML document construction with the PHP DOMCommunity News: PEAR Version 1.5.0 Released
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Here's what was popular in the PHP community one year ago today:Yet Another Web Development Blog: A PHP Developer Spends a Week with PythonZend Developer Zone: AJAX Chat Tutorial Pt 5: Javascript, Sending Chat Messages, Screen Name ChangesWebDevLogs: ClickHeat - PHP+JS heatmapTemplora.com: Basic PHP Script SecurityVinu Thomas' Blog: Modifying your MySQL databases to be UTF-8 compliantJeff Moore's Blog: PDO versus MDB2AnyExample.com: PHP password generationJason Palmer's Blog: Zip Code To LocationThe Bakery Blog: A gift for all to enjoySara Golemon's Blog: PHP-2006: A look backMatthew O'Phinney's Blog: Overloading arrays in PHP 5.2.0Davey Shafik's Blog: A Year in Review (2006)Jacques Marneweck's Blog: Smarty tip for including multiple javascript filesphp|architect: Final days of our iPod Training Promo!Alexander Netkachev's Blog: About Eclipse PHP IDE php.ini location
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This week's latest PHPBarnstormer has been released by PHP Magazine.
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Elizabeth Smith has a new post to her blog today covering some of the fun she's been having with compiling things like Gtk+ and PHP-Gtk2.   So I've been using microsoft visual studio (actually it's Visual C++ Express, but uses the same stuff behind the scenes) to work on getting things compiled on windows. PHP-Gtk2 allows for some nifty extensions, well at least on linux. So I've been working to get versions of libglade, scintilla, gtksourceview and mozembed working on windows. It's a long, slow process. Here's the deal so far.   She talks about her current situation (what's compiling and what's not) and the software that she's trying to get up and running. She also mentions a problem she's been having with an error message talking about "unresolved external symbols" she'll need to track down (or get some help on - anyone out there seen it?)
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From the IBM developerWorks phpblog today, there's a new tutorial on getting PHP to compile/build on a Windows machine from the source - PHP 6 (and PHP 5).    These instructions are intended to cover everything that you need to do to be able to build PHP on a Windows XP system. They may work on other Windows systems, I haven't checked. No prior knowledge is assumed, except how to perform basic operations using the windows command line (eg mkdir, copy) and how to use an editor (eg edit) and no software (other than Windows) is assumed to be installed.   The instructions have been tested with PHP6 and PHP5, the only difference being that any references to ICU can be ignored if you are building PHP5.    The tutorial starts with the download of all needed software - Visual C++, a Windows Server 2003 SDK and the .NET framework. The rest is broken up into three steps:   getting PHP and the prerequisites to prepare for the build  customizing the build environment (combining Visual Studio and the SDK) performing the actual PHP build (including steps to build resolv.lib and running the compile from the command line).   He also points to Elizabeth Smith's tutorial on compiling on Windows for more information.
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Here's what was popular in the PHP community one year ago today:The bla.st Blog: Process your URLs in PHP with Apache mod_rewrite and wildcard DNSZend Developer Zone: Book Review : PHP and MySQL by ExampleBen Ramsey's Blog: Zend Executable Debugger Eclipse PluginIlia Alshanetsky's Blog: PHP 5.2.1 RC1 Available for testingphp|architect: 7-Day Promo Fest BeginsNew Earth Online: Detecting Users OnlinePHPBuilder.com: Beginning Ajax with PHP: From Novice to ProfessionalVexxhost.com: Top 5 new (and cool!) features in PHP5 that you probably haven't heard ofFelix Geisendorfer's Blog: A PHP developers guide to JavaScript - Part 1DevShed: Introducing Bridge Classes with PHP 5Book Review: The Design of Sites: Patterns for Creating Winning Web SitesPaul Jones' Blog: New Year's BenchmarksHowToForge.com: Building Apache with PHP,MySQL, OCI8 instant client supportManfred Weber's Blog: Consuming PHP SOAP Webservices with Flash - Part IZend Developer Zone: Who Uses the Zend Framework?
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Richard Davey has a quick post noting the update of his WAMP Guide (a step-by-step method for installing Apache/MySQL/PHP on a Windows XP machine).   Just a short entry to let everyone (and the search engines) know that I've updated my comprehensive WAMP guide so it now covers PHP version 5.2.3. I always had a help file on how to upgrade to 5.2.3 at the end anyway, but now that 5.2.3 is officially released I updated the core guide to reflect this.   This tutorial is a "comprehensive guide to installing and running Apache 2.2.4 with PHP 4.4.7 and PHP 5.2.3 on Windows XP. It covers all of the steps in detail with lots of screen grabs so you can follow the process visually."
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Here's what was popular in the PHP community one year ago today:Christopher Jones' Blog: Review: PHP Web ProgrammingCommunity News: PHP Conference BrasilWebReference.com: Creating a Custom RSS Feed with PHP and MySQLThe Shadow Fox Network: Create Dynamic URLs With Mod_Rewrite and PHP FunctionsJoshua Eichorn's Blog: Official WebThumb Contest rules publishedDevshed: PHP EmailHowTo Forge: Installing A LAMP System With Fedora Core 6ThinkPHP Blog: Oracle with PHP and PDODevShed: Creating an Administration Area for a Simple Threaded Discussion ForumDevShed: Setting up the Foundation for an Extensible Website Engine with PHP 5PHPBuilder.com: PEAR's HTML_QuickFormAndi Gutmans' Blog:  PHP and Database Connection PoolingInternational PHP Magazine: Poll Question: The Biggest Advantage of PHP 5 is?Greg Beaver's Blog: PhpDocumentor 1.3.1 is releasedAlexander Netkachev's Blog: Practical PHP events
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Edin Kadribasic has posted another new build of the PHP 4.x series and the latest MySQL libraries - PHP 4.4.6-win32 with MySQL 5.0.37.   I have compiled 5.0.36 libs mysqlf since that release didn't include pre-built windows binaries. I thought it would be the best if we bundled "original" MySQL DLLs so here is the PHP 4.4.6 binary compiled against 5.0.37 MySQL libraries. Upcoming versions of PHP5 are going to include this version of MySQL client library as well.   Click here to download this latest version (two files, both to be dropped into your existing install directory.
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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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Gennady Feldman has posted the second part of his install instructions for setting up the Oracle Instant Client (11g) and the Oracle OCI8 drivers in PHP.   This is part 2 of my installation instructions. This is my attempt to provide an updated and simplified reference. I am leaving Part 1 as is, because that part can also be useful.   This updated tutorial shows the steps to installing 11g (versus 10g in the previous example) including the packages you'll need, the commands to make it work and a PEAR version of the install if you choose to go that route.
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Christian Wenz, back from the php/db|works conference and at a break following the conference, has posted some of his thoughts about this years conference over on his blog.   My schedule was crammed right after php|works 2006, so I could not find an earlier possibility to blog. Anyway, the extended entry contains my short report on php|arch's second conference this year.   He talks about some sightseeing before-hand, Tutorial Day, XML Security demos, Unicode in PHP6, a "slight problem" concerning his laptop, and his role on the Zend PHP5 Certification Panel. Check out the full entry for all of the details and "expect a separate blog entry later" on his experience on the panel.
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I'm back, with a very interesting topic too!  Joel Spolsky, ex-Microsoft Manager and software engineering guru has a new essay, How Microsoft Lost the API War that is creating quite a big storm in the blogging communitiy.  Joel posits that the priests in the holy Temple of Microsoft have lost their way, because it has split into two factions, and the wrong faction is winning. One faction worships on the alter of backward compatibility, while the other is led by fervent priests who are proselytizing to raise up the new gods of .NET and Longhorn. Joel suggests that the new gods will cause the destruction of the holy Temple because Microsoft's great victories were built on the altar of keeping customers happy with backward compatibility. Furthermore the old gods of the Windows API continue to grow more grotesque and cruel with the passing of time, driving former worshipers into the arms of the friendlier gods of World Wide Web.  This story sounds extremely plausible. I must admit that i fit the profile of the developer who used to develop on the Window's API, is familiar with COM and Win32 who now develops mostly using PHP and Python. However I continue to develop and maintain Windows apps that keep our customers happy, and we still plan to develop new Windows apps. Some points:  Temple of the Blind? Firstly, Microsoft is still a compelling place to work for to people who feel that they can make a difference. The Temple continues to attract talented people with a Unix background. For example we have the recent hiring of Ward Cunningham, author of the Wiki.  Microsoft is still able to keep talented people like Raymond Chen, and others like him who continue to look after the Windows API, and Longhorn apparently will still give high priority to backward compatibility. Open sourcerers like Miguel Icaza are sufficiently attracted to the .NET vision to stake their careers on Mono. Longhorn and .NET are compelling technologies, so even if Win32 is not so cute anymore, M'soft is providing something that remains very attractive.  What i do see M'soft doing wrong is that they aren't disseminating the .NET runtime fast enough. It remains an optional install in XP Service Pack 2 for example. Also their IE dev team appears to be hog-tied due to political reasons; nevertheless IE remains good enough, particularly when I can embed IE as an activeX control, something I cannot do with Mozilla (AFAIK) - Update: I'm wrong.  Temple of the Spider?  Secondly, people don't merely use a web browser. They run the web browser in the OS.  So let me ask you, if you are using DreamWeaver or HomeSite or Photoshop or vi or emacs or Gimp, how many of you are willing to give it up for a java applet (or whatever your favorite technology is) running in your web-browser? Precisely.  Temple of the Abandoned?  Third, Joel makes the claim that developers are not developing to the Windows API. Well he could be right. But I bet a lot of them are still calling Win32.  If you are using a framework or IDE like Delphi or wxWindows (or .NET or VB) then you certainly are insulated from the Windows API, but that doesn't mean that you're not calling the Windows API all the time. I don't see Borland dropping their Windows version of Delphi at any point in time.   In fact, the fact that many developers are using some form of framework is a compelling argument for Microsoft to enhance the .NET framework to attract developers who are using other frameworks.  Today, not that many students learn x86 assembler, but that doesn't mean that Intel lost the CPU wars. Just because fewer people are learning Win32 doesn't mean Microsoft has lost the API wars, if the frameworks run predominantly on Win32.  Temple of the Lost  Joel even warns you in the beginning that "because I'm talking about big trends, I need to exaggerate and generalize". But you still get sucked in because Joel Spolsky is a first-class writer, in the same order as Philip Greenspun or Eric Raymond. That makes him so persuasive and plausible. But this is not Indiana Jones and doomed temples, but Steve Jobs and reality distortion fields.  Other opinions:  Harry Fuecks (PHP is ASP's upgrade path),  Dennis Hamilton (M'soft is just covering all bases), Robert McLaws (Joel is wrong in 7 points), Oliver Travers (the web is not good enough), One Run-time to Rule them all....
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Ivo Jansch has a recent post made the other day that takes a look at one of the recent offerings from IBM targeted at PHP developers - the functionality to allow PHP to run on their System i platform.   Some of the developers at Ibuildings are working with PHP on IBM's System-i platform. If that name doesn't ring a bell, it has been called 'iSeries' for a while and it's basically a new name for the old AS/400. [...] Recently IBM and Zend have teamed up to port PHP to the i5/OS operating system. So far this port seems succesful; one of the reasons is perhaps that PHP is easier to adopt by traditional System-i developers than Java, which forces you to learn Object Oriented Programming.   He makes mention of the db2 database extension you can use to access the database as well as a "i5 toolkit" to help with the same. He even links to an article talking about it.
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Elizabeth Smith has posted about a new toy she received from the folks at Microsoft that adds in a missing piece of development functionality on Windows - code coverage and testing.   So this evening I managed to get PHPT running my tests (they're just basic .phpt tests but run-tests is..well flakey is a nice description some days) for my winapi php extension wrapped inside a "generic test" for Visual Studio. [...] So what did all this accomplish? I now can run my phpt tests through visual studio and collect code coverage on what theyÃ¢ÂÂre testing. Like GCOV, only for windows.   She's also included a screenshot of what the interface and results of the testing look like in the latest Visual Studio tool.