Andrey has implemented a little mysqlnd only addition to mysqli_debug(): 'm' - dump memory information. It works like the other options described in PHP: Debugging ext/mysqli and mysqlnd with the only difference that it is only available with mysqlnd.

A comparison of the "before option 'm'" and "after option 'm'" is also included.

mysqlnd saves memory. It consumes half as much memory as libmysql. This is what we have been convinced of. This is what we taught you. Then I tried to test it and made Andrey get nervous for a few hours'¦ Meanwhile he is fine again and we can announce: mysqlnd saves memory, not only in theory, we tested it - we can proof it, can we?

The proof comes in the form of a few "tricks" and some of the settings that the software can use to optimize buffer sizes. Benchmarks (and the code to run them) are also included to show what the differences are between mysqlnd and libmysql.

The Alternative PHP Cache (APC) is a free and open opcode cache for PHP. It was conceived of to provide a free, open, and robust framework for caching and optimizing PHP intermediate code.

The installation is pretty simple and, once you get things in place the configuration can start. The tutorial lists out several of the options you can use to customize your installation and a brief paragraph on what each of them do.

Bernhard Seefeld was testing the new compression option for imagepng and was wondering why there is still a relative big difference in image sizes.

In my first attempt to create smaller images, I only allowed to change the compression, it was not sufficient to get really lite pictures.

After a short look to the libpng codebase (and the horrible imagick doc), I added a last argument to imagepng, the filtering mode.

He includes code later in the post, showing how to use this filtering option to make even smaller images (an option included from PHP 5.1.3 and up).]]> Mon, 30 Jan 2006 07:37:31 -0600 http://www.phpdeveloper.org/news/4691 http://www.phpdeveloper.org/news/4691 Tim's blog today (Design by Tim), he has a new post that talks about "learning to extract()" - using this function to create variables based on $_GET and $_POST entries.

The days of explicitly declaring variables passed in from a form for use - or (gasp) using $_GET['varName'] in your code is no longer needed! Clear as well as clean code is the discussion for variable setting today, and we get to explore how easy it is to extract(), Typically you would have call the variable and then set it.

The world is changing. While that is not bad for small forms or simple tasks but what if your project is larger or lets just say after reading this article you abondon gathering all the $_GET data from your simple form?

He goes on to talk about the different flags that you can pass in for various options (like "overwrite existing variable" or "prefix variable names with this" sorts of things). Of course, this kind of methodology has to be used carefully so as not to create more security issues than it's worth...]]> Thu, 19 Jan 2006 07:06:16 -0600 http://www.phpdeveloper.org/news/4510 http://www.phpdeveloper.org/news/4510 his latest post follows his look into the world of PHP workflow software - things that help keep you on track with development and the work that needs to be done - and how they're going to approach it in their PHP app (workflow engine on top of OpenPsa to support different pharmacovigilance and drug regulatory processes from the viewpoint of a drug manufacturer.

Since workflow is a big topic, it would be great to be able to share some of the development efforts with other PHP-based applications. Galaxia is a PHP workflow system that is shared between projects like TikiWiki and a list mentioned of things that the workgroup creation process should follow, and that Galaxia Workflow looks quite nice...]]> Fri, 16 Dec 2005 07:06:11 -0600