A native Windows binding for PHP

rubs

Hi all,

I have designed and successfully prototyped a native Windows binding for PHP. This binding is already capable of doing dialogs, controls, and a lot more with very few lines of code. PHP can thus be used as a tool for developing native Windows applications, so it can compete with several much more expensive languages/environments. Click here for more details. This library will eventually grow into a full-fledged IDE. I believe this idea has great potential in the low-end market given the enormous installed base of Windows users and the ever-growing interest about PHP.

I'd like to open the code source and make a profit at the same time (although I'm not sure if that's possible), so I'm open to any ideas or business opportunities regarding the large-scale development of this product.

What do you think? Does this idea have potential? Would any serious company be interested in investing on a project like this?

Sgarissta

I think what could be really cool, is if you would write a packager, that wrote a single exe based on this. It would have to take the php-cli binary, your php script, and the .rc file, write them to a single exe, then read them out of itself. But then you could have stand alone apps that don't rely on someone having PHP installed and configured correctly.

Or i guess if you aren't quite THAT adventurous, to just write an installer for distributing phpW apps 🙂

rubs

Originally posted by Sgarissta
I think what could be really cool, is if you would write a packager, that wrote a single exe based on this.

That's not a difficult task, but I think a single exe is not essential provided you can run the thing as an ordinary program -- which is the case with WinBind.

then you could have stand alone apps that don't rely on someone having PHP installed and configured correctly.

Right, that was an essential requirement and WinBind already does this. It is standalone and you don't need to have PHP or a database installed. Take a look here for the details.

Or i guess if you aren't quite THAT adventurous, to just write an installer for distributing phpW apps 🙂

Again, this is a trivial task... because there are already several top-notch installers out there (like Inno Setup) so I don't need to write one 😉

Sgarissta

Originally posted by rubs
That's not a difficult task, but I think a single exe is not essential provided you can run the thing as an ordinary program -- which is the case with WinBind.

So you're telling me I don't need to distribute both my PHP source code (in plaintext). The php-cli binary. The winbind DLL file, and any other extensions that are required to run my app?

Now tell me how that is easier than a distributing a single exe (that prevents to a greater degree my source code being able to be modified, and redistributed). ?

rubs

Originally posted by Sgarissta
So you're telling me I don't need to distribute both my PHP source code (in plaintext). The php-cli binary. The winbind DLL file, and any other extensions that are required to run my app?

Now tell me how that is easier than a distributing a single exe (that prevents to a greater degree my source code being able to be modified, and redistributed). ?

Sorry if I wasn't clear. You're right, of course it is much better to deliver an app as a single executable. And an EXE IS essential (or almost) if you want to prevent others from seeing your source code, of course.

yelvington

This already has been done using GTK, which is crossplatform (Windows, Linux, Mac).

http://gtk.php.net/

rubs

Originally posted by yelvington
This already has been done using GTK, which is crossplatform (Windows, Linux, Mac).[/url]

Yes, I know PHP-GTK. The keyword for WinBind is "native". WinBind is specifically targeted at Windows developers who want to make things real simple -- and PHP is simple and very powerful at the same time. I have studied PHP-GTK and several other bindings and scripting languages, but none of them was able to deliver truly native Windows applications (with the exception of a couple of less well-known platforms that used minor, non-standard languages). Nevertheless, I acknowledge that PHP-GTK has the big advantage of being multiplatform and it is a de facto standard, no doubt about that.