Re: RANT: Why doesn't PHP have built-in support for dynamic image generation?

Anybody interested in working on a PEAR module to interface PHP with something like ImageMagick directly? I would love to see it. Maybe if I am unemployed long enough soon I can work on it myself. Not that I really want that to happen... I think that might be the best solution for PHP's lack of image functionality though... Wes > Hi Erica, > > I feel your pain - I've been dealing with the same thing this week. I > finally got the compile to complete and the system up and running, but it > was painful. It seemed like everything was finished, but I've noticed high > server loads (.8), trouble accessing web pages (I tested using wget and it > had to try 6 times to get the page and kept reporting EOF in headers), and > my MySQL server keeps reporting errors communicating with the web server, > and dropped connections to the MySQL server. Safe to say, something didn't > work and I need to start over and pray for the best. > > Have you gotten it to work properly? If so, what files did you use and > what steps did you take in the install? > > -Ed > > > At 11:24 PM 2/2/2002 -0800, Erica Douglass wrote: >> Forgive my grumpiness, but I've spent the last several hours trying to >> install GD, etc. >> >> Let's be honest. PHP needs built-in support for creating dynamic images. JSP >> already has this. Heck, you could even make it a configure option. As it >> stands now, you have to do the following: >> >> -- Install GD >> -- Install all of GD's numerous dependencies >> -- Install zlib >> -- Install freetype >> -- Install libttf >> >> THEN you have to compile PHP with all of the requisite options to enable GD >> here and Freetype there, and PHP often won't compile without specifying >> /path/to/various/options, so you have to dig around your system to find out >> where everything was installed. This results in a long and unwieldy >> configure statement which often does not work. >> >> PHP needs to have a simple configure option called --enable-dynamic-images >> or something similar. This should use built-in libraries that are downloaded >> with the PHP source to create PNG images. Images can then be created with >> standard PHP functions. This would be much more useful than relying on >> several third-party solutions which do not easily work with each other. This >> would also have the benefit of being more portable -- as I plan to release >> my code to several different people running different types of servers, I >> would like to minimize compatibility issues. >> >> If anyone has a better solution, feel free to email me. As it stands, I am >> very frustrated with this, and I haven't yet seen the light at the end of >> the tunnel. >> >> Thanks, >> Erica >> >> >> >> -- >> PHP General Mailing List (http://www.php.net/) >> To unsubscribe, visit: http://www.php.net/unsub.php >