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Their list is great -- I'll be reading some of those articles for weeks before I get through them all. I'm especially interested in the 7 security blunders article. Nice!

But they did leave off a lot of sites that are useful. Here are a few:

• PHP Resource Index - a few thousand scripts for downloading, most free, all PHP.
• PHP Builder Forums -- the PHP Builder site is pretty useful all by itself, but in the forums there are thousands of people willing to answer your PHP questions.
• PHP Freaks -- one of the guys behind this site wrote a great PHP book. The site is excellent.
• ADOdb Database Abstraction Layer -- okay, okay, this isn't really a site, so much as a product. But still, it's a very efficient DBAL, and it should be used for every database query.

Anyone want to pitch in with some more? I'm sure there are some very useful sites that I've completely missed (and which the IBM site missed, too).

Like the poster I replied to, these types of comments typically don't offer anything more of use than pointing out what we all would agree is abvious... sure the asker could go off and program their own. If that were a viable option, then they probably wouldn't have asked slashdot. In fact, this asker even said that he didn't want to take that route.

Again, my primary gripe is that the poster didn't offer anything else to support this suggestion. It was wasted keystrokes without saying something like "Check out Hotscripts or the PHP Resource Index for a good place to start. In fact, check out FX.php for something that will help you migrate from Filemaker to PHP." Answering "just do it in PHP/MySQL" and leaving it at that kills the thread usually without offering anything intelligent. I suggested (though I admit I was a bit crass) that posters like that provide more info and produce an actual constructive answer instead of an aloof and castrated suggestion that is offered far to often in ask slashdot replies. I've had my fill of them and finally felt I had to say something.

Why not generate an image containing modified text like yahoo and others? Using a little PHP magic, it shouldn't be too hard (see here to get a start).

There is an article on php's output buffering (which includes compression)here
There are also a collection of third party class's which you can browse here.

http://www.free-ed.net still has such classes for free. As for perl, try http://www.cgi101.com and cgi.resourceindex.com.

I came upon this situation at my workplace. I am a web developer. We hired a contractor to write a newhire system, and he wrote in ASP. It kept breaking. Since our company is Linux-based, no one knew how to fix it. So they asked me to rewrite it.

You'd be amazed at how many nuances there are to a given application. I rewrote it in PHP. But there were things I was missing, and features I wanted to add. Then, when I finally released it, we found several bugs. Some of those bugs never got fixed, since we have moved on and no longer use it. there were things that were never added; features that were not there.

You can learn so much by reading someone else's code, even if it is just to see what NOT to do! And even if it is just to say, "Hey, I can do that better!" MANY times I have gone to the PHP ResourceIndex to download something and the only thing I can say after I'm finished is, "Wow, I could have done it better." But a few times I have been introduced to simpler ways to do things and easier ways to implement my code.

Bottom line: There are things that will bite you in the @$$ if you rewrite from scratch. There will be bugs. There will be a 1-6 month development cycle (depending on the complexity of the code.) And there will be features missing, and if you implement it, guess who gets blamed...

Now, that's not to say that you should not rewrite it. It is to say, "Be careful." It's those little things, like "I used to be able to right-click on this..." that will get you in the end.

Good luck! Whatever your choice is, RESEARCH it well and TALK IT OVER with your boss and/or anyone else who has programming expertise at your company. Know what you're getting into. Plan out a feature set (it will have THIS feature in v1.0, but not THIS one.) Study the old code, and find as many volunteers to bugfix your new code as you can. Above all, if you don't have to rewrite the whole thing, DON'T. Even tabbing out the code can make a huge difference. You might want to start with the small stuff and go from there.

Check out : http://cgi.resourceindex.com/Jobs/ There are a number of people looking for help with Perl/CGI.

Pretty strictly cgi stuff obviously, but check the link, there are some people who need help.... http://cgi.resourceindex.com/Jobs/

The CGI Resource has a similar project going for this. Every so often I get emailed a list of the new CGI toys that developers have released as well as some of the CGI Apps that people want developed and how much they are willing to pay for them.

Here is an extract from the mailing list from http://cgi.resourceindex.com:

Programs and Scripts: Perl: Searching: Searching the Web:
MP3 Search
Version: 1.0 - Released: 11/29/99 - Free - Unix
This script searches 14 of the most popular MP3 search engines.
It's easy to set up, and it should bring you quite a lot of visitors.

Programs and Scripts: Remotely Hosted: Postcards:
INFARED.com Post Cards
Released: 12/3/99 - Free
A free, remotely hosted post card script. You can customize the look to fit your site and even upload images and midi files for users to choose from.

Job
Script Installer
Company: M. Samuel
Description: I'm trying to develop a network of websites, and I need a script installer for CGI script instalations in two locations that I have now, and three that I will be developing later this year, and early next year. Please contact me for more information.
Requirements: Experience with Perl, C++ and Java. Must be comfortable with NT and Unix based servers

If it's Perl you're looking to get into, the Great O'Reilly offers up a number of books, including Learning Perl, Programming Perl, Advanced Perl Programming, the Perl Cookbook, etc. Start out with Learning Perl. Some other posts mention Python, which is also good for CGI, and you can pick up O'Reilly's Learning Python and Programming Python. Be forewarned, though. I've used both for CGI programming. And when I'm using Python (powerful though it is), I find myself longing for the regexps of Perl.

If you'd like an online tutorial, you might want to check out The CGI Resource Index, which is made by the same guy as Matt's Script Archive. Between the tutorials on the Resource Index, looking at the source of Matt's script, and reading the O'Reilly books, you can learn just about anything you want to know about Perl.

Of course, if you get stuck, you can always go to ng's, irc, or your local Perl nut.

If you're looking for software, there's lists at these two places.

The CGI Resources List lists a whole slew of message board CGI scripts in perl.. some are free.. some aren't. Check it out

TheSripts .com also has a very large index of free scripts.

Another one that you really might want to look at is Web Crossing It's not freeware, but it can handle a very large number of users and posts, and runs really well. See Builder Buzz to see it in use.