PHP-GTK 2 is out, and with it, a fantastic means for PHP developers to build useful, reliable cross-platform desktop applications. In this tutorial, I'll show you how to get up and running with PHP-GTK in no time and build your first desktop application.

They look at qhat it is, getting started with it and making your first application (a simple little "Hello World" output box). They also point out some of the demos you can grab as examples and show you how to make something a little more powerful - a window with an input form that generates an md5 hash.

Features include cross-platform functionality (Linux/Windows/Mac OSX), the ability to work on many protocols (like Jabber/Twitter/Jaiku) and it includes multilanguage support.

You can find out more about this simple little application on the Nitwit site as well as down load the latest version. There's also a discussion area that's been set up to allow developers and users to throw in their comments.

php-desktop emulates a desktop using KDE programs/icons

php-desktop is tested with KDE. It also uses KDE programs (for example kde-open) and KDE icons. php-desktop gets the icon by the mimetype of a file. If the file is a desktop-file php-desktop gets the icon from there.

You can check out a screenshot of the project for a preview of what it's like or just download the archive and try it out for yourself.

I recently read an interesting example at Neil Shearing's internet marketing strategies blog of combining .NET desktop software with a PHP backend.

We all know PHP is often slated by "real programmers" as a scripting language only useful for kiddie's home pages, and its nice to see a serious marketer choosing PHP to power the backend to a serious piece of viral software with the potential to go load-mad.

Richard also points out some of his experience trying to market his software and which of his customers are the ones that would provide the most return (the ones looking for updates) and how he can gather their information more productively to further his project's goals.

You've been through it all with the web, from basic database hacks to battling with inconsistent browser rendering, and now you want to have a go at something different.

Of course, the standard destination would be desktop application development.

The work through some of the basics of desktop development as well as some of the advantages and disadvantages to making the move. The include some example code to get you started with a "Hello World" sort of example using the PHP-GTK libraries.

• the "Click Fast" button that makes use of the Gtk::timeout_add() and Gtk::timeout_remove() functions
• a Desktop Widget that can be used for useful information you want to keep in view
• visualProxy - an HTTP proxy server and transmit HTTP proxy requests from a WWW user agent to an other proxy or directly to a server. It displays requests graphically and update information on the fly on a detailed list with many fields columns.

Check out their apps and code snippets sections for more examples like these.