Every piece of server side code that has anything to do with the ATI Network is written in PHP. Why, you ask? Because it is straightforward, gets the job done - and done well, and fits perfectly with my procedural, "no bloated objects" programming style. Yes, being an interpreted language, PHP isn't quite as fast as if I was compiling all my code. But being interpreted has many advantages - from cross platform compatibility to instant code execution for rapid development testing. I can heartily recommend PHP to anyone interested in learning server side programming.

And just as important, ATIServer:
From my very start as a PHP coder, I have been developing a "library" for handling common tasks and situations to make myself as efficient as possible. When I first used Apache's mod_rewrite to run every single http request my sites were getting through a php script for URL beautification purposes, it gave me an idea: Why not write my own webserver - in PHP - and completely abstract myself from all the nonsense that is modern webserver configuration?

I have been slowly developing the idea - and the server - ever since, and ATIServer is now my trusty companion on all my projects. Though ATIServer is a fully functional standalone multithreaded webserver, I am currently running in "inside" lighttpd for my production sites. Long term, I am researching the viability of using the Roadsend PHP Compiler to compile ATIServer to machine executable bytecode, and then run it in standalone mode on a cloud computing platform such as Amazon EC2. I have designed ATIServer from the ground up to meet my needs as effeciently as possible - and have no plans to release it to the world, but mabye I will change my mind someday.
Some of the features that ATIServer currently sports include:

• Custom multi tier database backed session managment and user tracking
• Advanced session handing with multidomain authentication and user window ("buffer") identification
• Fast and flexible 4 level templating system
• On-the-fly static resource optimization including javascript and CSS merging, minifying, and compression
• Organized, integrated, and totally easy site and network management
• Custom "GUI" html components library based on CSS and javascript
• Url beautification
• Integrated PHP rapid application development framework
• And much more.

I use the MooTools javascript framework extensively, do all my coding in jEdit - and much of my graphic design in Adobe FireWorks, and absolutley love my MacBook Pro.