Dynamic Flash

This is just a quickie for anyone who's battling with the UTF-8 support (or lack thereof) in PHP4.

According to the online docs the PCRE family of functions can be made UTF-8 aware by adding a u modifier to the pattern you're using. Since the standard explode function doesn't support UTF-8, you might think of using the preg_split function like this to split a UTF-8 string into an array of characters:

Unfortunately it seems that preg_split is the only PCRE function that doesn't support the u modifier. Instead, you'll have to use preg_match_all like this to get the same effect:

It looks as though the hosting for phpforflash.com has finally run out. This was the official site for my Foundation PHP for Flash and Advanced PHP for Flash books. It even had an active community, almost 4 years after the original book was published. Thanks to Alan McCann, Content Architect for both books, for picking up the hosting tab for as long as he has.

Incidentally, in an effort to get rid of a lot of clutter from our dinky little house I've put two of my author copies of Foundation PHP for Flash on Amazon UK. The book is out of print now (and, if I'm honest, a little out of date in places) so this is pretty much the only way to get hold of a copy now. I'll even sign them too if that would help to shift them, though I'm not egotistical enough to think that anyone would want my autograph for any purpose other than forging cheques in my name