To put it simply, Krumo is a replacement for print_r() and var_dump(). By definition Krumo is a debugging tool (now for PHP5 only), which displays structured information about any PHP variable [...] it does the same job, but it presents the information beautified using CSS and DHTML.

It also supports output of other data in a "pretty format" like backtraces, included files and a listing of all constants. You can check out a demo of it in action here.

This article is the first installment of a five-part series of articles covering xdebug, a free and open source swiss army knife tool for PHP developers. xdebug is a PHP extension created by Derick Rethans, one of the PHP core developers. This week, we will show you how to install xdebug and introduce you to some of the basic features. In the subsequent parts of this article series, we will have a closer look at one of xdebug's main features, namely tracing, profiling, debugging, and code coverage.

In this first installment, he looks at installing the software (both on a unix-based system and on a Windows box) and how to turn it on to work with your web server. He also mentions some of the error output options including the "new and improved" var_dump call and the stack trace method to help you locate exactly where in the code the error's hidden.

Being a whimsical sort, I decided that actually implementing his request would be more fun than simply pish-poshing it. I'm not suggesting this be part of PHP6 (I still don't personally think it's a good idea), but it's a fun exercise and good for a conversation starter...

There's several things she can now do with the special characters including dumping out the results of divisions, comparisons and fractions natively.

As of PHP 5.2.1, json_decode() no longer follows the published standards for JSON-encoded texts. Why not? For no reason other than the convenience of those ignorant of JSON standards.

His complaint stems from the results of a vat_dump statement - prior to this version it would give a NULL, but now it returns a "bool(true)" value back, resulting in some breakage of previous scripts. He spends the rest of the post explaining his voyage through the JSON world and how things are supposed to behave. He also digs a little deeper into the var_dump issue and why he thinks it's such a bad thing.