In a new post to his blog today, Jacob Santos shares a look at converting an application from one language to another - from C++ to PHP (obviously).

The reason I'm revisiting blackjack is because I have a C++ version and I want to port it to PHP, for fun. If you want to have a simple project for learning a language, other than "Hello World," then Blackjack is a good project.

Since Blackjack is a relatively simple game (as far as the rules go, that is) he chose a simple C++ version to port over. He sets up some guidelines first - break down the code into simple, reusable parts and keeping it as simple as possible. Most of the rest of the code is dedicated to the code:

• Game start
• Statistics handling
• Randomization
• Looping
• Conditional statements

The transition is pretty simple, really, especially with how flexible PHP is and the large number of built in functions it comes with.