In this recent post to the PHP::Impact blog, Federico talks about a slightly scary thing - a version of PHP implemented 100% in Java.

Quercus allows developers to incorporate Java code into PHP web applications and gives both Java and PHP developers a fast, safe, and powerful alternative to the standard PHP interpreter.

He mentions what it supports - things like Unicode and several of the popular extensions like APC, GD, MySQL, Oracle and PDF). There's also benefits he points out like the speed of the libraries (and safety) as well as interoperability with Java code and frameworks. Check out the official Quercus website for more information.

Toomas Romer has posted about his latest release for the framework he's developed to create a simple Eclipse plugin with PHP.

After three weeks we have the next release of Eclipse Plugins in Php ready. The update site is the same.

Changes include a reworked API, the ability to pass method arguments to PHP, bundling of the Quercus software, a tests subproject, and an updated quick-start/step-by-step example. He explains the updates to the API and some of the licensing issues surrounding the use of Quercus in the post as well.

On his blog today, Vinu Thomas points out a faster way to run PHP natively on a pure Java server - Quercus. As a side benefit, it can also interact with the Java code already in the application/on the server.

Quercus is Caucho Technology's 100% Java implementation of PHP 5 released under the Open Source GPL license. Quercus comes with many PHP modules and extensions like PDF, PDO, MySQL, and JSON. Quercus allows for tight integration of Java services with PHP scripts, so using PHP with JMS or Grails is a quick and painless endeavor.

Quercus focuses on the integration of PHP and Java and allows PHP to access things like Java's JMS, EJB and SOA Frameworks. It works by compiling the PHP scripts into Java and run on top of the Quercus software as a native application.

Joshua Eichorn points out an interesting project in a new post to his blog today - quercus.

I found an interesting project, quercus that compiles PHP to Java Bytecode allowing it to run ontop of the Java Resin Application Server. It has a couple neat features, one being PHP6 compatible unicode support, the other being easy integration between Java and PHP code.

He gave it a shot and notes that the performance seems decent and allows you to compensate for some of the differences in the PHP API it supports and what you're using via a Java class. According to their site:

Quercus is Caucho Technology's 100% Java implementation of PHP 5 released under the Open Source GPL license. Quercus comes with many PHP modules and extensions like PDF, PDO, MySQL, and JSON. Quercus allows for tight integration of Java services with PHP scripts, so using PHP with JMS or Grails is a quick and painless endeavor.

It includes several extensions too, including the JSON library, APC, MySQL and Oracle support, and PDF functionality. Check out their Getting Started guide, documentation, or their wiki for more information.