Internationalization and localization of a web page is simply the act of setting it up to be able to handle displaying in multiple languages and adding those different languages in. There are many different ways in which to do this. One of the simplest is to just make sure that all your strings that you ever output are stored as variables or constants in an included file. That way, you can make multiple copies of that file,each with different language versions written into them. Just include the appropriate file for the language that you want to display.

They show the creation of the different language PHP files that will be included and the master "language.php" that works with the under's input to switch to the correct language (and set a cookie to save the preference).

The new release of Image_3D (0.4-alpha) is out. It was quite some time ago, Richard Davey wrote his great introduction into Image_3D. He asked for some different types of lights, I didn't thought of, when I released Image_3D first. This needed a minor change in the API you use to create lights, but offers some great improvements. See changelog for details.

Some of the other additions mentioned include, as mentioned, the ability to create different types of lights (light, ambient, point, and spotlight) and the inclusion of an object that allows for the creation of bezier areas from an array of points.]]> Mon, 20 Mar 2006 07:34:12 -0600 http://www.phpdeveloper.org/news/5017 http://www.phpdeveloper.org/news/5017 this article posted that takes a look at ten of the more prominent PHP frameworks offered today, including the Zend Framework, Cake, Symfony, and Seagull. They compare each of them, including a large chart outlining their basic setup and features.

PHP frameworks are the latest hot topic in the PHP community, and new frameworks are being released daily. With over 40 frameworks available it's difficult to decide which framework works best for you, especially as each framework offers different functionality.

In this article we will look at ten popular frameworks, and compare them to each other. First I will give you a general chart which gives you a quick overview of all the frameworks, and after that we'll go through each framework and discuss it in short.

They start with the chart mentioned above for those that just want to boiled down version of the reviews. From there, they work through each, describing general details about them and the general feel that the author got from them as they developed in them. Of course, there is no real "winner" when it comes to this kind thing. Sure, there's always a few that rise to the top as more well developed and suited for more of the projects out there, but it's really more about what fits for you, not an overarching single framework to do it all...]]> Mon, 20 Mar 2006 07:27:00 -0600 http://www.phpdeveloper.org/news/4724 http://www.phpdeveloper.org/news/4724 Sebastian Bergmann has updated a previous benchmark concerning the performance of PHP 5.1 as built with various versions of GCC.

I updated my previous benchmark of PHP 5.1. This time around I built PHP with GCC 3.4.5, GCC 4.0.2, and GCC 4.1.0.

The bottom line result seems to be that GCC 4 generates slightly slower code:

• GCC 3.4.5: 15.223
• GCC 4.0.2: 17.896
• GCC 4.1.0: 17.847

The detailed results are also included, showing how he came to each point mentioned above. They include the specs for the machine, how the testing was set up, and the detailed breakdown of the stats for each GCC version.]]> Wed, 25 Jan 2006 06:40:40 -0600 http://www.phpdeveloper.org/news/4611 http://www.phpdeveloper.org/news/4611 Vidyut Luther talks about the difference between require and include in PHP.

This should be well known, and people should be aware as to why they are using either or. But, I've noticed lately that a lot of people new to PHP or programming are not aware of the difference. Depending on what you need you, need to decide what the differences are.

It's a short post, but for someone just getting into PHP, it's some handy information to have. He looks at both functions and gives what they're good for. He does throw in a few caveats, though - including an issue with parse errors in included files pre-PHP 4.3.5...]]> Thu, 05 Jan 2006 06:56:33 -0600