I’m a Qt kind of guy when it comes to OSS GUI frameworks and really Qt is more than that. However lately I’m spending some of my time in PHP. I really enjoy developing in PHP and I’m always trying to find new and fun ways to use a language I spend time in. Since PHP is primarily a web development language, I wanted to see what libraries/frameworks were out there to support desktop application development with PHP.

I looked at PHP-Qt, however I feel that project still has a ways to go before I can start using it. Keep in mind, I work on a Windows box all day and I didn’t want to have to jump through the cygwin hoop. I think they will have good support for Windows soon, but I want something that I can use now.

I did some more research and came across the PHP-GTK project. The first thing I look for in a framework project is the documentation. I was surprised to see the amount of documentation and with some code samples. The docs are not perfect, but they provide me with what I need.

Demos are the second thing I look for. I want to see how it will work, how the code is compiled/ran and if I can run it on my system. Within a couple minutes of unzipping a folder, I was up and running.

So, if you are a PHP developer looking to develop a desktop application, I would consider taking a look at PHP-GTK.