I started writing PHP when I was at University, in 2001 or thereabouts. Having checked the dates it looks like I did technically write PHP before PHP 4.3 was released and register_globals went out of fashion. I don’t recall it though and obviously its been a while!

Today I was trying to debug a script which uses register_globals on, virtually for the first time. Its a new working environment for me and a situation where support is still being provided for some legacy systems. Trying to track where values are coming from, or might be coming from, was quite mind-bending. Its like having voices inside my head while I’m trying to concentrate on something!

There’s more where that came from so if anyone has any suggestions for debugging a language where the variables seem to come from nowhere, or can remember how to work with PHP with register_globals turned on, I’d be grateful :)