A Look at the Original PHP Developers

When PHP began in 1995, it represented a fork on common object oriented programming languages. Designed to help provide scripting for the web, the language took on a life of its own as it became one of the primary web development standards. Today, PHP is used by millions worldwide and powers a majority of sites.

In order to understand the origins and future directions of the language, it’s beneficial to analyze the roots of the development. To founders of the language remain active in its development, leading an international team to improve the quality, security and features of PHP in a new era. The team currently works through Zend Technologies which both develops open source libraries as well as offering commercial, enterprise solutions for deployment of PHP in development environments.

As the language has matured, many of its early supporters have now taken the language to the mainstream. A formidable open source competitor to Microsoft’s ASP (.NET) platform, PHP is approaching the release of version 6 which is a more stable, mature basis for the language.  Today, millions of users and many large companies rely upon PHP to power their web projects, making it one of the most widely adopted programming languages on a global basis.

The ongoing advocacy and development work of its founders has helped launch the language in new directions, leading to an entire LAMP (Linux, Apache, mySQL, PHP) stack that powers top open source projects.  Today, the original developers of the language are actively involved in its growth and maturity through Zend Technologies which has a framework, server and testing environment for professional PHP developers. As the code becomes more stable and widely adopted, Zend is at the forefront of the movement.

Zeev Suraski

As one of the co-founders of Zend, Suraski worked to help promote open source technology and to improve PHP standards. He works with the Apache Software Foundation and serves as the technical lead on new Zend projects. A graduate of Technicon in Israel, he travels globally to speak at industry events. Considered one of the leading voices in PHP development, he has been recognized for his commitments to the open source community.

Andi Gutmans

A leading Israeli computer scientist, Gutmans is a founded of Zend Technologies and one of the primary authors of the Zend Framework. Serving as CEO of Zend, Gutmans has helped expand the organization with blue chip alliances of firms such as Microsoft and IBM. He also works on the Eclipse Foundation and serves as a leading technical author for PHP. Recognized globally for his work, Gutmans is considered a leading voice as PHP becomes an enterprise level language.

Rasmus Lerdorf

As the original author of PHP, Lerdorf worked to modify object oriented desktop code for the web. He worked with Zend to help formalize standards for the language, while also working on Apache server technology. Working as a speaker, consultant and programmer, Lerdorf also worked as an engineer at Yahoo with a focus on security and open source technology.