In a new post today, Clay Loveless talks about some issues he's been having with PHP and JSON, specifically with the JSON encoding method in PHP 5.2.1.

As of PHP 5.2.1, json_decode() no longer follows the published standards for JSON-encoded texts. Why not? For no reason other than the convenience of those ignorant of JSON standards.

His complaint stems from the results of a vat_dump statement - prior to this version it would give a NULL, but now it returns a "bool(true)" value back, resulting in some breakage of previous scripts. He spends the rest of the post explaining his voyage through the JSON world and how things are supposed to behave. He also digs a little deeper into the var_dump issue and why he thinks it's such a bad thing.

In a new post today, Clay Loveless talks about some issues he's been having with PHP and JSON, specifically with the JSON encoding method in PHP 5.2.1.

As of PHP 5.2.1, json_decode() no longer follows the published standards for JSON-encoded texts. Why not? For no reason other than the convenience of those ignorant of JSON standards.

His complaint stems from the results of a vat_dump statement - prior to this version it would give a NULL, but now it returns a "bool(true)" value back, resulting in some breakage of previous scripts. He spends the rest of the post explaining his voyage through the JSON world and how things are supposed to behave. He also digs a little deeper into the var_dump issue and why he thinks it's such a bad thing.

Tiffany Brown has posted an update to her look into is_numeric versus ctype_digit today, mentioning an issue she came across when testing based on the differences she found in her previous posting.

Just a quick follow-up to my post on is_numeric vs. ctype_digit. There is one quirk with ctype_digit that may affect your choice about whether to use it.

When the string in question is empty, ctype_digit returns TRUE. However, when it is null, ctype_digit will return FALSE.

She includes code to illustrate, noting the return of each function.

Tiffany Brown has posted an update to her look into is_numeric versus ctype_digit today, mentioning an issue she came across when testing based on the differences she found in her previous posting.

Just a quick follow-up to my post on is_numeric vs. ctype_digit. There is one quirk with ctype_digit that may affect your choice about whether to use it.

When the string in question is empty, ctype_digit returns TRUE. However, when it is null, ctype_digit will return FALSE.

She includes code to illustrate, noting the return of each function.

Christian Wenz has posted this new item on his blog today with a report relating to the Oracle/Zend rumors that have been floating around.

Well, the rumors (that also made it into blogosphere, including Toby's post) obviously could not be ignored by Zend any longer. Therefore, the German division of Zend just sent out an email to a couple of people officially stating that Zend is currently not negotiating a sale to Oracle.

I suppose only time will tell on the deal, but it seems for now that the sale is not going to happen (and that there never was a sale in talks at all).

Christian Wenz has posted this new item on his blog today with a report relating to the Oracle/Zend rumors that have been floating around.

Well, the rumors (that also made it into blogosphere, including Toby's post) obviously could not be ignored by Zend any longer. Therefore, the German division of Zend just sent out an email to a couple of people officially stating that Zend is currently not negotiating a sale to Oracle.

I suppose only time will tell on the deal, but it seems for now that the sale is not going to happen (and that there never was a sale in talks at all).