Greetings from the trenches!

Two of the new tools for webservices that I have found very interesting are: PHP3 and mod_perl. These two technologies look to hold much promise for one who wants to leverage open source software to provide database-driven dynamic websites.

Could you comment as to whether either of these will be coming out under one of your labels soon?

Steven

Steven:

I love getting email like yours, because it reassures me that we're on the right track. Truth is, we at O'Reilly & Associates couldn't agree with you more. PHP3 and mod_perl are important open-source technologies, and O'Reilly intends to provide books to make them easier to use.

As you know, O'Reilly likes to publish books written by the creators of a technology or by a leading light in the user community. (We publish books for people in the trenches by the people who dug those trenches!) Our mod_perl book is no exception. Writing Apache Modules with Perl and C was written by Doug MacEachern, the creator of mod_perl, and Lincoln Stein, a published author and creator of CGI.pm. Like most O'Reilly books, Writing Apache Modules with Perl and C covers this narrow topic in considerable detail, giving it the attention it couldn't get as a mere chapter of Apache: The Definitive Guide. This book will be out in March.

I can't tell you too much about our PHP book -- it's not far enough along yet to announce -- but when it does come out, I think you'll find it conforms to the principles I've described here.

You should look for other O'Reilly open-source books that cover areas of interest to database and website programmers. Now that Java is becoming an open-source product, Java Servlet Programming, just released, may be of interest to you. So may the second edition of Virtual Private Networks, also just released, which now covers Secure Shell (SSH) and IPsec.

In the coming months, keep an eye out for MySQL and mSQL, another key open-source technology for the database programmer. Again, this project isn't ready for announcement, but we know that it's a technology that interests our readers.

Now: back to the trenches!

Frank Willison

Return to: Frankly Speaking