Well if he doesnt want to use Internet Explorer or any browser at all then it looks like you are going to be loosing the PHP.
On the other hand if he just doesnt want to use internet explorer then you could whip up a little application that uses the internet explorer browser, and make the program look however you want.
If I lost you then nevermind. I dont know about C++, but Delphi & Visual Basic (VB ack!) both have IE Components.
Derek C.