There is also another issue. I run four different Moodle versions privately, ie on my local network but now with v2.1 I will drop that to 3. To change the network, currently a peer-to-peer using Windows XP, (shudder at the antiquity I know but there it is), is a major undertaking, for which I have no time for right now. I am going to use a Linux, probably Suse, for my server, and run 2 virtual machines, XP and Win 7 Pro, to generate 3 different environments for my Moodles. This long winded introduction is, essentially, a commentary on the retrograde nature of the technology that a lot of people are using - even companies and government departments. (I know one here has just graduated, about 2 -3 years ago, from Word Perfect to MS-Office - talk about social inertia.)
I am "consulting" one company who is running this same setup, and I am urging them to spend the money to update - which they will not until their server is about to collapse completely. This is not miserly, but it is that simple old idea that if they are spending a lot of money on technology, then they want to get some value from it - or at least value uintil depreciation allows them to write it off tax wise. As one person put to me, the technology is always changing, and if they can keep their systems stable enough, and if their need does not dramatically change, then should they upgrade for the sake of upgrading? This is not a major company btw, but a family concern, one of the few left in the world I suspect. (They do good business and run a POS program that to me look like it was written in Tubo Pascal.. hahahaaa!! More likely a Visual C++ with a very simple non-graphical UI) OK, here is the crux, the recent VC9 compilations of PHP have been downoaded as has the latest Apache 2.2.19 Win32 SSL, (from Apache Lounge, not Apache Foundation binaries I have been told) and the IT guy there cannot seem to get the PHP to work for their Administration network. He has the latest VC9 runtimes, and has tried a number of combinations, but cannot get them to work in the XP environment. I have been able to get v2.0.x running using additional dlls in PHP5.2.17, but not v2.1. I too have tried to upgrade the PHP, and have failed miserably. I am going to try this hack Petr...maybe if it works I can at least give them some idea that they will only be able hang on to their older infrastructure for another year or so but not much longer. What else can I do?