Homestar Runner Wiki Forum

...just in case,
I'm in the process of learning php (which is surprisingly similar to GML)
and, I have a "compiler" for php on my computer. Now, I know PHP
is intended to be interpreted on an online host, but I also want to write
stand-alone programs using it. Is there anyway to get input/output in it?
Like, the same way you would in BASIC? Here's the BASIC equivilent of what
I want to do:

How would I do such a thing in PHP? And don't say "use an HTML forum!", I
am trying to make this a stand-alone application.
PS: sorry for all of these questions! If I can't find help here, I'll ask it on a
Tech forum.

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Alright! You win, The Noid! No more memes.

I'm not too sure how to apply PHP to a command line application, but from what I've read you can use fwrite/fgets and stuff like that to output and input information. Normally you'd say something like fwrite($fileHandle, 'String'); to write 'String' to a file, but in this case you'd write 'String' to $STDOUT to write to the prompt.

<?php
$STDOUT = fopen('php://stdout', 'w');
$STDIN = file_get_contents('php://stdin', 'r');
fwrite($STDOUT, 'How much do you wanna bet? ');
$bet = fgets($STDIN);
?>

Not totally sure if that would work 'cause I don't have too much time to look into the subject.

Why do you want to use PHP as a desktop scripting language?

PHP is for internet.

Why the heck would you do otherwise?

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The only real feasible need for a command line PHP script would be a cron job. But even then, that would probably just need arguments instead of asking for input. In which case input would be like:

php myscript.php Mike

Using PHP as anything other than a web language is, frankly, a horrible idea. You're suffering from the "When all you have is a hammer, everything begins to look like a nail" syndrome. Learn a language like Python or Ruby; they're much better for developing computer programs than PHP is, and if you're comfortable with PHP, you'll be just as comfortable with them.

- Kef

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Actually, I'm doing this so I can test scripts before I put them on the internet.

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Alright! You win, The Noid! No more memes.

Just stick it up on the Internet and use $_GET['name'] to test different variables.

script.php?name=Mike&age=17

$_GET['name'] would be 'Mike' and $_GET['age'] would be '17'. If you wanted to test different variables you can just change the URL.

In that case you shouldn't make a standalone script. What you should do is install Apache on your computer and make a mini-website that you can use to test exactly the same script you would upload on the web. Or, much easier, you could just put a test site on the web and use that...

- Kef

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