A new article on the ITJungle.com website asks if Zend's support of PHP on IBM's System i machines could be the "next RPG", replacing the current language as the language of choice.

For years, the System i platform and its followers have marched through the wilderness of development languages, seeking a suitable replacement for the aging RPG, whose benefits aren't a good fit for a Web world. Now, some platform advocates see the server-side scripting language PHP stepping into that role.

The bulk of the article is an interview between Alex Woodie (of ITJungle.com) and Duncan Kenzie, president of Excel Systems. They cover topics like:

• Duncan's first perceptions of PHP
• why he decided it would be a good language to go with
• how it works in their WebSmart software
• differences between Java and PHP impacts
• the ease of the shift for RPG programmers to PHP

The Zend Developer Zone has an announcement posted about a few new updates from Zend including i5/OS V5R3 Compatibility, a new PHP Redbook, and RPG Web Cast.

The partnership between IBM and Zend is bearing fruit once again. Not satisfied with having PHP run on IBM's i5/OS V5R4, now the two companies have put their heads together and back ported Zend Core for i5/OS to V5R3.

They've also released the redbook for it that shows you how to install, configure, and work with PHP on System i using Zend Core for i5/OS and Zend Platform for i5/OS.

As far as the webcast - you can sign up for that here and find out "Why RPG programmers should care about PHP".

Justin Silverton has a list on his blog of some of the PHP-based games out there today, including several RPGs and various smaller, lighter games.

The list includes:

• Heros of Might and Magic
• Anoi Towers
• Chipmunk Riddles
• Legend of the Green Dragon

Not all of them are smaller, independant sites either - the Heroes of Might and Magic site is related to the widely popular Ubisoft game of the same title. Always great to see PHP being used in major ways!