Re: PHP update and directions

["Steve Richter" <stephenrichter@xxxxxxxxx>]

On 10/25/06, Shalom Carmel <shalom@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> Hello,
>
> I met some guys from Zend technologies and asked them about iSeries and PHP.
>
> As I promised, here is a summary of the topics that were discussed.

great. glad you did that.

> Why port php to the iSeries?
> ----------------------------
> Because IBM has asked them to and provided the necessary incentives.
> The PHP learning curve is not as steep as the Java learning curve,
> and rpg programmers will find it much easier to adopt.
> On the one hand, IBM was disappointed with the weak penetration of Java
> to the iSeries world.

I assumed Java did not work out because the iSeries was slowed down
too much. I hope PHP runs better on the standard issue 1/4 core i5.

> Accessing databases.
> --------------------
> PHP relies on the operating system to provide database connectivity.
> PHP can access DB2/400 in a native mode.

An AIX binary running in PASE can access native mode DB2? How does
that work? Are there APIs for that?

> It can access other databases via
> ODBC
> by utilizing DRDA (wrkrdbdire).

sounds slooow.  I think that is the way you call RPG from PHP, via an
SQL procedure.

Any sense of what Zend thinks of the i5?  Did IBM pay Zend to port PHP
or are they actually investing in the platform?   Any chance Zend will
buy i5/OS from IBM??

-Steve