PHP as an embedded scripting language

[Roger]

......ie in my application!

Basically I want to add a scripting language to a cross platform
application. The prime requirements are that it is:

a) Small
b) May be easily staticlly compiled into the app and require nothing
more than libc and sockets.
c) It must be easy to add new functions in C to hook into the app.
d) Reasonably easy to learn and use.

After looking at the many options available I have almost settled on
Lua, however I would **like** to use PHP, I have used the apache PHP
module for server side scripting in the past and like it. It has been
excluded a bit from my choice because I could not find out anything
**about** using it as an embedded scripting language for apps, and any
attempt to search for e.g "PHP embedded" results in zillions of
references to embedding in HTML etc.

Can anybody give me any pointers or tips on this aspect/use of the
language?

[Jerry Stuckle]

Roger wrote:

.....ie in my application!

Basically I want to add a scripting language to a cross platform
application. The prime requirements are that it is:

a) Small
b) May be easily staticlly compiled into the app and require nothing
more than libc and sockets.
c) It must be easy to add new functions in C to hook into the app.
d) Reasonably easy to learn and use.

After looking at the many options available I have almost settled on
Lua, however I would **like** to use PHP, I have used the apache PHP
module for server side scripting in the past and like it. It has been
excluded a bit from my choice because I could not find out anything
**about** using it as an embedded scripting language for apps, and any
attempt to search for e.g "PHP embedded" results in zillions of
references to embedding in HTML etc.

Can anybody give me any pointers or tips on this aspect/use of the
language?

PHP ia not compiled, so it won't meet your second requirement.
Additionally, I've never seen it embedded in anything but html. While I
see no reason why it couldn't be, it's the Apache (or IIS) PHP module
which senses the <?php and ?> tags and passes what's between them to the
interpreter. You'd have to create a similar module for a standalone app.

--
==================
Remove the "x" from my email address
Jerry Stuckle
JDS Computer Training Corp.
js*******@attglobal.net
==================

[Roger]

Jerry Stuckle wrote:

PHP ia not compiled, so it won't meet your second requirement.
Oops, no, I misled you there! What I meant was that I need to compile
the interpreter into the application. The embedded interpreter would
interpret uncompiled code.
Additionally, I've never seen it embedded in anything but html. While I
see no reason why it couldn't be, it's the Apache (or IIS) PHP module
which senses the <?php and ?> tags and passes what's between them to the
interpreter. You'd have to create a similar module for a standalone app.

PHP can run as a stanalone interpter. In fact the CGI version is quite
capable as being used as such (or rather **it is** a standalone
interpreter).

However, as you point out, it is pratically always used in web server
scenarious, I don't no how much this has detracted from it's
suitability as an embedded scripting engine.

[NC]

Roger wrote:

PHP can run as a stanalone interpter. In fact the CGI version is quite
capable as being used as such (or rather **it is** a standalone
interpreter).

However, as you point out, it is pratically always used in web server
scenarious, I don't no how much this has detracted from it's
suitability as an embedded scripting engine.

Well, there's also the command-line interpreter...

Cheers,
NC

[Jerry Stuckle]

Roger wrote:

Jerry Stuckle wrote:

PHP ia not compiled, so it won't meet your second requirement.

Oops, no, I misled you there! What I meant was that I need to compile
the interpreter into the application. The embedded interpreter would
interpret uncompiled code.

Additionally, I've never seen it embedded in anything but html. While I
see no reason why it couldn't be, it's the Apache (or IIS) PHP module
which senses the <?php and ?> tags and passes what's between them to the
interpreter. You'd have to create a similar module for a standalone app.

PHP can run as a stanalone interpter. In fact the CGI version is quite
capable as being used as such (or rather **it is** a standalone
interpreter).

However, as you point out, it is pratically always used in web server
scenarious, I don't no how much this has detracted from it's
suitability as an embedded scripting engine.

Roger,

I don't know how you could compile the interpreter into your program. I
suspect it would be quite difficult, requiring some changes to the
interpreter code. But I guess it could be done.

Alternatively, you could call the command line interpreter and buffer
the contents back into your program by redirecting stdout to a pipe.

I think it would be difficult, though. Remember - PHP itself doesn't
have any real user interface other than a command line prompt.

--
==================
Remove the "x" from my email address
Jerry Stuckle
JDS Computer Training Corp.
js*******@attglobal.net
==================

[Roger]

Jerry Stuckle wrote:

I think it would be difficult, though. Remember - PHP itself doesn't
have any real user interface other than a command line prompt.

Allthougth it is not very relevant to my problem, I would point out
that there is a PHPGTK project http://gtk.php.net/ which binds GTK
widgets to a PHP engine, and thus **does** allow you to create stand
alone GUI apps with PHP.

The apps will run on any platform GTK runs on (Win, *nix, Mac ......)

[Mike Willbanks]

Roger wrote:

Jerry Stuckle wrote:

I think it would be difficult, though. Remember - PHP itself doesn't
have any real user interface other than a command line prompt.

Allthougth it is not very relevant to my problem, I would point out
that there is a PHPGTK project http://gtk.php.net/ which binds GTK
widgets to a PHP engine, and thus **does** allow you to create stand
alone GUI apps with PHP.

The apps will run on any platform GTK runs on (Win, *nix, Mac ......)

I would recommend downloading the php source code and running around in
there. It should be too hard to compile it into your own program. You
would just need to load up the zend engine everytime you were about to
parse some type of php document.

--
Mike Willbanks
Zend Certified Engineer
http://www.digitalstruct.com