Microsoft supports PHP for developers

In line with its new strategy of greater interoperability, Microsoft’s Expression Web development tool now includes support for open source scripting language PHP.

Version 2 of the Expression Web tool allows developers to code in PHP using the tool as well as mix Microsoft’s technologies such as Silverlight and ASP together with PHP.

Aside from code colouring for PHP, Expression Web 2 also includes the ability to insert common PHP functions using PHP snippets built into the development tool.

Expression Web 2 also includes an development server that is capable of running PHP code on a development machine, without needing to install IIS or Apache. Expression Web 2 uses PHP 5.2.5 which can be downloaded for free.

The company demonstrated the latest version of Expression Web at the TechEd South Africa 2008 conference running now in Durban.