PHP and Python Hit Prime Time

Nicholas Petreley   Today’s Top Stories    or  Other Development Stories  

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November 11, 2002 (Computerworld) --

It's strange to say that PHP (Hypertext Preprocessor) has only recently reached the point where it's ready for prime time, since PHP is already the most popular Apache module, running on almost 10 million domains (over a million IP addresses).
Nevertheless, I've had some reservations about PHP until recently, especially with respect to potential security holes. Then I downloaded and installed the latest version of FUDforum, an open-source PHP-based Web discussion forum package I use for my nonprofit Web site, VarLinux.org. You can get an idea of what FUDforum looks like by visiting www.varlinux.org/forum. But what you should really examine is the PHP code behind FUDforum, which you can download from http://fud.prohost.org.
At some point when I wasn't looking, PHP matured to a point where one could easily avoid the security holes that plagued some old PHP programs. This is especially true if you take an object-oriented approach to building your PHP applications.
Another good example of high-quality PHP programming is phpWebSite (http://phpwebsite.appstate.edu), a Web content management system with several good snap-in expansion modules, including one that lets you create e-mail accounts for CommuniGate Pro, an increasingly popular drop-in replacement for Microsoft Exchange. The CommuniGate Pro e-mail and groupware server (www.stalker.com) has a built-in Web interface for e-mail that you can integrate into the site you manage with phpWebSite.
The only thing I haven't yet seen done well in PHP is an open-source Web-based groupware application. Yahoo did a pretty good job designing its Web-based calendar (http://calendar.yahoo.com). It even allows you to synchronize your data with a Palm device. But most IT departments are going to want to host their own calendars and groupware, and if there's anything that's been done in PHP that is of comparable quality to what Yahoo came up with, I haven't found it.

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