Aley R. - PHP Beyond the Web: Shell Scripts, Desktop Software, System Daemons and More

Ive been programming in PHP since late 2000. Initially it wasnt by choice as my preferred languages at the time were Perl and Delphi (also known as Object Pascal). Things began to change after I graduated from the University of Leeds with a degree in Computer Science in 1999 and started out in a career as a freelance web developer. After only a couple of months I was offered the opportunity to take over a (relatively speaking) substantial government website contract from a friend who was exiting the freelance world for the safer and saner world of full-time employment. The only catch was that several thousand lines of code had already been written, and they were written in a relatively new language called PHP. Oh, and the only other catch was that I had about a week to learn it before taking over the site. So, as was the way at the time, I popped down to the local Waterstones bookshop (for the younger among you thats where we used to get books. Books made of paper. And we had to go out and get them. Or order online and wait days for them to be delivered. Did I mention they were made of paper?). With my paper copy of The Generic Beginners Complete Guide to PHP and MySQL for Dummies Compendium book in hand (I may not have recalled the title completely correctly) I settled down with a pint of ale (Im in Yorkshire at this point, remember) and set about reading it. A few days later I was coding like a pro (well, stuff was working) and 12 years later I havent looked back. After a varied career as a freelancer and starting up a couple of, er, start-ups (IT related and not) with varying (usually dismal) success, Im now a full-time programmer at The University of Oxford. My day job involves medium-scale data acquisition and management, statistical analysis and providing user interfaces for researchers and the public. The majority of my development work is done in PHP, either developing new projects or gluing together other peoples software, systems and databases.

Through-out my career Ive always used PHP for web development, but for Desktop GUI work I initially used Delphi (and then Free-Pascal/Lazarus), complimented with bash shell scripting for other tasks. This was mainly due to learning them while at University. However, as PHP has matured Ive increasingly used it beyond the web, and now I rarely use anything else for any programming or scripting task I encounter. Having been immersed in other languages like C++, Javascript, Fortran, Lisp (and probably others that my brain has chosen deliberately not to remember) by necessity during University and in some of my freelance jobs, I can honestly say that PHP is now my language of choice, rather than of necessity.

When Im not tied to a computer, I would like to say I have lots of varied and interesting hobbies. I used to have. I could write a whole book (which wouldnt sell well) about where Ive been and what Ive done and Id like to think its made me a well rounded person. But these days I dont. In large part this is due to the demands of my three gorgeous young daughters Ellie, Izzy and Indy, my gorgeous wife Parv and my even more gorgeous cat Mia. And I wouldnt have it any other way. Thats what I tell myself, anyway

Isaac Newton said If I have seen further, it is by standing on the shoulders of giants. This book builds on, and hopefully adds to, the work of many others. The most notable of whom I would like to acknowledge below.

The authors of, and contributors to, the official PHP manual
An invaluable reference for PHP functions and syntax, to which I referred frequently during writing this book, both for fact checking and as an aide-memoir. Thanks!

The collective PHP wisdom of the Internet
For over 12 years Ive used you for learning, research, play and profit. Too many sites & too many people to list here, if youve written about PHP on web then you may well be one of them. Thanks!

My Family
For allowing me a modicum of time to write this book, and supporting me unconditionally in everything I do. Usually. If I ask first. And theres not something more important going on. And usually with conditions. Thanks!