I don’t read php-internals anymore because I’m partial to getting work done, but there was an interesting question the dealmac developer posted. Basically dealmac, like my current employer, has a large array structure in a PHP file somewhere that is included on every page. It’s abusing memory.

Brian then notices that if you use var_export()(a function I keep forgetting exists), he was able to cut the memory usage from 5MB to 1.2MB. Storing it serialized reduced the memory usage to 20% but with double to load time performance penalty.

How could a 300K file use up so much space in memory?

The way you answer this is to use vld to make the Zend Engine your bitch.

[The answer after the jump.]Continue reading →

Because I haven’t moved in yet, there is a dearth of good books at my place. In light of that, I finally picked up a Redbook. No, I don’t mean I’m interested in how to find my inner sex goddess, I mean I wanted to see what IBM’s developer tech support has to say.

This one is called Developing PHP Applications for IBM Data Servers. And that’s a tad ironic because I’m using Oracle. As Chris is fond of saying: people are born with either an I or and O stamped on their foreheads.

I was born with “cheap ass” stamped on my forehead since I’ve tried to stick to MySQL, PostgreSQL, and SQLite. But flipping through the book makes me make an observation from the cheap ass camp.

[Getting me to switch after the jump.]Continue reading →

[The views expressed in this blog are definitely my own and not those of anyone I work for, have worked for, or even get drunk with.]

I’m used to Xdebug. We use Zend Platform. Am I going to have to have a Rodney King moment?

Here is Derek’s take on it, and here is some guy from Eclipse PHP IDE’s response.

I don’t care.

I want the developers here to use the development environment they want and me to use the debugger/profiler I want. Anyone know a solution? Currently it seems that if I use Zend Platform, we have to use Zend Studio or Eclipse PDT to debug. If I use DBGp, we can use ActiveState Komodo, NuSphere PhpED, or PHPeclipse.

Am I wrong? Are there other editors that support DBGp? Which should I use (in particular I want have valgrind for profiling output and I like the built in error system in XDebug, but I haven’t had a chance to delve into Zend Platform so you can try to sell me on that).

[Other rants after the jump]Continue reading →

Congratulations to Andrei and the PHP team for passing the halfway mark at adding ICU/Unicode support to PHP 6.

I can’t wait.