First off this morning, from Zend.com, we have the second part of their series that focuses on command-line PHP and how to use it to create scripts that can take in input or just run on their own. In Creating Shell Scripts using PHP 4 (Part 2), they shift gears a little and show you how to create a CLI version of a little blackjack game. This gets into such topics as taking in values (the $argv array) and the actual meat for the program. They only get into some of the functions in this one (they gotta get you to come back somehow), so don't expect a full working blackjack game just yet. They just give the part of the program that does the work, but not the part that displays the results yet. It's nice to see that they're not all seriousness when it comes to some of their Code Gallery Spotlights - and that they know how to do more than just web pages and the like...

Also today, over from Builder.com, there's a new article that points out a trend that more and more people are noticing when it comes to databases these days. Is SQL a standard anymore? asks the question that so many people have wondered (I know I have) about their favorite SQL database. The ANSI/SQL standard, enforced by the National Institute of Standards and Technology, isn't being enforced any more, and, as a result, there's just not the continuity between databases that you used to see. SQL is becoming more and more relative to which database you're using and less about a "standard" that's been set forth. Sure, you'll always have SELECT and UPDATE and the like, but after that, you never know what that database could throw at you. This article makes a valid point - Either some sort of standard enforcement system needs to be put in place, or the myth of the SQL standard should be demoted to the level of recommendation before sloppy compliance becomes the de facto standard.

And, last, but definitely not least this morning - SitePoint has a new article posted that's an interview with Andrei Zmievski, one of the larger players in the PHP community (with large contributions to PHP-GTK and Smarty, among others). It's a fun little interview, with detail sections about PHP-GTK and the Smarty Template project and questions about each. It's also nice to see that he has interests other that just working on PHP, and that he is even considering going back to school for a masters in linguistics!