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Date: Wed, 23 Oct 2013 20:20:06 +0200
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Subject: PHP and Objective-C
From: ingwie2000@googlemail.com (Kevin Ingwersen)

Hello there.

I have absolutely no real clue where to post this but rather into some =
sort of development mailing list.

Recently, I started to work on some tool that will compile a lot of PHP =
scripts into a single file, and may even go further and bundle a PHP =
binary within to create a sort-of standalone PHP executable. The concept =
is quite simple, but the including stuff isn't really. But, as I was =
thinking about this idea, I came across the various ideas of trying to =
use a GUI with PHP scripts. On windows, that has already been possible. =
But not on Mac - at least I found no working solution. wxWidgets (as =
extension, wxPHP) won't compile because it relies on the Carbon =
framework - which has been discontinued since about at least three major =
releases. And the extension can't be made to work with Cocoa, as this is =
Objective-C - and not C/C++.

And here is the keyword, Objective-C.

I have learned, that Objective-C is, like C++, a layer ontop of C. =
Furthermore, I saw that there was am "embed" SAPI, yet I couldn't find =
any way to fully integrate PHP into a binary that had non-Zend code =
inside; there is only a book. And due to my visual impairment, I am =
unable to read said book.

So I came up with a few questions:

	- How could one integrate PHP into a C/C++ programm?
The reason I ask is because, I want to see how far I could integrate PHP =
into an Objective-C program.

	- When integrating, how could I expose Objective-C functions to =
PHP's "C-Scope"?
The Zend 2 API is very poorly documented; basic things like =
reading/writing to and from objects is documented so poorly, that I had =
to read a ~100 page long slide share. But yet, I thought that the only =
way to expose stuff like Objective-C functions, or even Classes, to PHP =
would be to add a PHP-Extension-like structure, so that once the =
Objective-C programm was initialized, it would use the Zend API to =
expose things to PHP.


My goal is to enable access to at least the GUI functions of Cocoa, =
which can be reached thru Objective-C. Using this method, I wanted to =
create a new kind of framework, and combine it with my previous project =
of pulling PHP files into one. I think it already made a clue in your =
head if you are able to understand my - sadly - weird english.

Once I can expose Objective-C scope into PHP, I would be able to enable =
GUI's with PHP. Since PHP is very easily understood, it could be a good =
start for switchers - like me - to understand the other language and =
API. Now, we can use my code-compiler idea and build all the PHP script =
into one single, giant file - maybe even use Phar as this offers a great =
solution for that. The last step is to combine the executable and =
script, and we would get an actual and valid Mac OS X application - we =
do not need the compiling part, but it'd be cool ;).


I hope anybody can help me, poke me into the right direction to =
anything. This is just one idea I have, and something I hope to realize. =
I taught myself a good amount of c++ by trying to create a wrapper of a =
C++ class for a PHP extension. So I would try the trick again to learn =
more about objective-C.

Kind regards,
Kevin Ingwersen

PS: I am from germany, my english may not be very understandable - so =
please ask if you didn't understand something! :)=