RE : [PHP-DEV] [RFC] Starting 5.3

> From: Stanislav Malyshev [mailto:stas@zend.com] >> ...and phar is the best candidate I know for this. > > I'd say the only one NO, there is an alternate PHP package format. It solves every issues you rose about phar (including the direct url access to a virtual file). Its name is PHK and it is available at http://phk.tekwire.net. The site includes an extensive documentation and several demo packages, including PHPUnit, the Zend Framework, The ZF documentation, Smarty,... Please also note that a PHK pakage embeds everything needed to manage its internal subfiles, avoiding the need for a an external (pear?) tool. I proposed this tool some months ago and I was severely kicked out by Marcus and friends because they took it as an attack against phar... It is not, it is an alternative. And, after reading all your reactions to his proposal of integrating phar into PHP core, I pretend that every issues you rose are solved in PHK. I didn't want to talk about it anymore on this list because nobody seemed to be interested in the subject but, as Marcus himself started it again, maybe it is time for some of you to make a comparison... And I cannot let you say that phar is the only existing package format for PHP ! Please note that, on the performance side, I am currently working on a runtime accelerator for PHK. It will be an OPTIONAL tool, which, as first tests show, will allow to reduce the overhead by at least 90 %, allowing PHK packages to run in production environments without significant performance degradation. Regards Francois