Article
Interview - PHP-GTK's Andrei Zmievski
Andrei's Plans
SP: On your Website at http://gravitonic.com/, you quote John Burroughs:
"I still find each day too short for all the thoughts I want to think, all the walks I want to take, all the books I want to read, and all the friends I want to see."
With everything you're involved in, one question begs to be asked: how do you find the time?
AZ: With some difficulty, lately. Usually I try and make a schedule for the week, setting aside time for exercise, programming, reading, fun, housework, and other miscellanea. But by nature I am a very curious person and I frequently end up getting interested in and working on several things at once, although there are times when I am so far "in the zone" that I hardly notice the passage of time. Hence the quote.
SP: You're the Research and Development director at ispi, a news publishing Application Service Provider (ASP). A few years ago ASPs were hailed as the successors to ISPs. How far do you think that's become a reality, and what do you see as the future for ASPs?
AZ: ISPs are in no danger. A lot of people simply want connectivity. ASPs might have siphoned business customers away from ISPs, but that is a win-win situation: businesses get better services with ASPs, and ISPs can concentrate on what they do best.
The future for ASPs? Vertical markets and orientation towards local (city or neighborhood-level) communities.
SP: In general, what do you see coming on Internet, both in terms of technology and how businesses and individuals use it?
AZ: If I knew the answer to that, I'd be logging into my brokerage account and doing some trading, if you know what I mean. But seriously, I'd just like to quote Alan Kay, "The best way to predict the future is to invent it."
SP: In the Zend Hall of Fame, you're quoted as saying:
"I'm impressed by what mod_perl can do, and I'd like to make PHP jump through the same kind of hoop, so that it would be possible to write any sort of Apache handlers in straight PHP code,"
Are we likely to see this happen? What will this allow developers to do with PHP?
AZ: I have not heard of anyone working on this yet, but I think this would be a very interesting project. Especially with Apache 2 coming around. You would basically be able to write Apache modules in PHP: rewrite URIs, perform authentication based on any kind of scheme PHP supports, filter the input and output of the web server, manipulate headers, implement new protocols, and so on.
SP: What does the future hold for you? What are you working on now?
AZ: I am doing a bit more learning: C#, Scheme, compiler technology, speech and language processing, theories of investment and markets, history of western culture. My reading booklist is as long as my arm. And some time sooner than later I would also like to go back to school for a master's degree in linguistics. And win the lottery.
I'd like to thank Andrei for taking the time to answer the SitePoint Community's questions!