[plug] PHP

[Bret Busby]

"Anthony J. Breeds-Taurima" wrote:
> 
> On Tue, 1 Aug 2000, Bret Busby wrote:
> 
> > Is this PHP4, the version of PHP that can be compiled, so that the
> > source code for a PHP application is hidden?
> 
> php is interpreted by the server dishing the pages out.  so the client will
> NEVER see the php code.  If you code your application carefully and setup
> apache (or other httpd) server the client can't even tell that the web page
> isn't even dynamic.  The only way a user can see the code for your application
> is if they have local access.
> 
> does that help ???
> 

Kind of, but not exactly.

If a contractor does work for a client, to create an application to run
on a web server, to which the client has local access, an executable
file, which cannot be easily decoded back to the PHP source code, would,
amongst other things, ensure integrity of the application (by preventing
hack programmers from experimenting; "Ooh, wow. Look what I have found.
I wonder what happens if I change these lines to make it
prettier...Oops! it doesn't work anymore - call the developer, and tell
him that his application has a bug...") (apart from the contactor
preventing anyone else from working on their application, and thus,
ensuring that the contractor gets any required support and development
work on the application).

I had understood that PHP 4 was going to have some way of compiling,
rather than interpreting, so that it could generate executable files. I
think, from memory, I asked about hiding code, in PHP, and Perl, last
year, and I got a response, to the effect that PHP 4 would have this new
capability.

I am not sure, but I thought that the facility had some name starting
with "Z", like Zope, or Zenda, or something.

-- 

Bret Busby

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