On PHPMaster.com today they've posted the second part of their "PHP and the i" series (here's part one). In this new article, he looks a bit closer at what kind of knowledge is needed to develop PHP on the IBM i.

In this somewhat risqué episode, we’ll look at just what you need to be able to do development work on the i. Many people in the i world will that PHP is native to the i, but I don’t think that’s really true. To me, native means that it just runs, no problems or questions asked, nothing special needs to be done, it just sort of happens like when you see someone across a crowded room and know she/he is “the one”. That’s not the way it works with PHP and the i.

He starts off by talking about Zend and its contribution to the IBM i's abilities to run PHP through RPG thanks to a "bridge" they created. There are other options, but as he points out, they're not as well developed (or supported) as Zend's offering (being Zend Server, Zend Studio and Zend Framework).

He then talks about the details of creating and running scripts - where to put them, what kind of RPG knowledge you'll need to implement them, and which parts of the typical MVC stack work best where.

On the Zend Developer Zone there's a recent post of an interview with Mike Pavlak, a Solutions Consultant and IBM Series i expert, as interviewed in a podcast by Kevin Schroeder of Zend.

In this podcast Mike talks a little bit about where he's come from, the history of PHP on the i and, what I think is most interesting, what it is that PHP developers can learn from the "old-school" RPG developers and vice versa.

Mike also talks about one of his favorite parts of his job - being able to go out and give talks and just being out in the communities (user groups, conferences, etc). You can listen to this interview via the in-page player for the post.

A new article on the ITJungle.com website asks if Zend's support of PHP on IBM's System i machines could be the "next RPG", replacing the current language as the language of choice.

For years, the System i platform and its followers have marched through the wilderness of development languages, seeking a suitable replacement for the aging RPG, whose benefits aren't a good fit for a Web world. Now, some platform advocates see the server-side scripting language PHP stepping into that role.

The bulk of the article is an interview between Alex Woodie (of ITJungle.com) and Duncan Kenzie, president of Excel Systems. They cover topics like:

• Duncan's first perceptions of PHP
• why he decided it would be a good language to go with
• how it works in their WebSmart software
• differences between Java and PHP impacts
• the ease of the shift for RPG programmers to PHP

A new article on the ITJungle.com website asks if Zend's support of PHP on IBM's System i machines could be the "next RPG", replacing the current language as the language of choice.

For years, the System i platform and its followers have marched through the wilderness of development languages, seeking a suitable replacement for the aging RPG, whose benefits aren't a good fit for a Web world. Now, some platform advocates see the server-side scripting language PHP stepping into that role.

The bulk of the article is an interview between Alex Woodie (of ITJungle.com) and Duncan Kenzie, president of Excel Systems. They cover topics like:

• Duncan's first perceptions of PHP
• why he decided it would be a good language to go with
• how it works in their WebSmart software
• differences between Java and PHP impacts
• the ease of the shift for RPG programmers to PHP

The Zend Developer Zone has an announcement posted about a few new updates from Zend including i5/OS V5R3 Compatibility, a new PHP Redbook, and RPG Web Cast.

The partnership between IBM and Zend is bearing fruit once again. Not satisfied with having PHP run on IBM's i5/OS V5R4, now the two companies have put their heads together and back ported Zend Core for i5/OS to V5R3.

They've also released the redbook for it that shows you how to install, configure, and work with PHP on System i using Zend Core for i5/OS and Zend Platform for i5/OS.

As far as the webcast - you can sign up for that here and find out "Why RPG programmers should care about PHP".

The Zend Developer Zone has an announcement posted about a few new updates from Zend including i5/OS V5R3 Compatibility, a new PHP Redbook, and RPG Web Cast.

The partnership between IBM and Zend is bearing fruit once again. Not satisfied with having PHP run on IBM's i5/OS V5R4, now the two companies have put their heads together and back ported Zend Core for i5/OS to V5R3.

They've also released the redbook for it that shows you how to install, configure, and work with PHP on System i using Zend Core for i5/OS and Zend Platform for i5/OS.

As far as the webcast - you can sign up for that here and find out "Why RPG programmers should care about PHP".

Justin Silverton has a list on his blog of some of the PHP-based games out there today, including several RPGs and various smaller, lighter games.

The list includes:

• Heros of Might and Magic
• Anoi Towers
• Chipmunk Riddles
• Legend of the Green Dragon

Not all of them are smaller, independant sites either - the Heroes of Might and Magic site is related to the widely popular Ubisoft game of the same title. Always great to see PHP being used in major ways!

Justin Silverton has a list on his blog of some of the PHP-based games out there today, including several RPGs and various smaller, lighter games.

The list includes:

• Heros of Might and Magic
• Anoi Towers
• Chipmunk Riddles
• Legend of the Green Dragon

Not all of them are smaller, independant sites either - the Heroes of Might and Magic site is related to the widely popular Ubisoft game of the same title. Always great to see PHP being used in major ways!