Re: PHP3 Web Architecture Framework

Karthikeyan.Balasubramanian wrote:

Hi, I browsed the web for many different web architecture and frameworks. I found many Interesting but all wants latest version of PHP at least PHP 4.0.6. I dont want to upgrade the PHP Version(4.0.5) that i have because many clients are using it and i dont want to mess it up. Its a Pain in PHP that to support any extension we need to recompile with appropriate extensions unlike Java where all you need to do is put the appropriate Jar files in the /Lib directory and it automatically gets SET in the classpath and works great but I do ADORE PHP for its ease and efficiency and ofcourse along with Apache it rocks. So please dont suggest me to upgrade my PHP or something other.

Maybe you shouldn't publicly talk about how you and your clients are sticking with php4.0.5. It has known security holes, which is just one of many reasons to upgrade. You *will* spend much more time coding trying to make stuff work in PHP3 and early PHP4 than you will by taking advantage of relatively modern PHP4 versions. Session handling is something which comes to mind, and improved array handling. There will be things you can do in a few lines of code in recent versions of PHP4 that you simply won't be able to do at all, or not without *much* more work than it's worth. PHPGroupware.org *might* work for you. I know that there was a stated goal of their code working on PHP3 and PHP4 installations. I found that somewhat strange, but it was a goal. It may not be anymore. For *new* development, it doesn't make much sense to use the old stuff. If you're running older versions and people have apps that are running fine, that's another story, but even in those cases, the security exploits make it an unwise strategy for the long term. "Pear which ofcourse needed recompilation with Pear support" I don't think PEAR does require any recompilation. Certainly with most of the PEAR stuff you can just use the source code and it'll work fine. I would be very surprised if there wasn't at least SOME PEAR code which required PHP4.0.6 or higher. You don't need to recompile all of PHP, or at least you don't need to place the entire recompiled version of PHP into Apache again. You can usually compile "SO" files (shared object files) which you can dl() or put in php.ini. ./configure --with-gd=shared for example, will make a gd.so file suitable for dl() use. "So please dont suggest me to upgrade my PHP or something other." Sorry, if you get many responses, at least some will suggest you upgrade. This is like saying you drive a 6 year old car (equivalent in internet time!) and that you *won't* get a newer car (cause your passengers like the seats in the old car) but you want all the benefits of a new engine. The fact that the car has known safety hazards and that a new car is essentially free aren't supposed to factor in to this? True, your passengers may have to adjust to new seats, and they may not like those seats as much as the old ones, but they'll have a safer ride, and you'll have a new, more powerful engine. I just can't think of too many valid reasons to not be running at least PHP4.1.x, if not 4.2. 4.3 has only been out for a few weeks, and I don't expect too many people to be running that yet. Most *interesting* development work in PHP regarding frameworks involves people who are somewhat on the cutting edge, using recent technology. They are most likely not going to bother trying to support PHP4.0.5 and below. Good luck.