More major suggestions for improving performance are given on the Zend Web site in the article, "Optimizing PHP Scripts" Resources). While this is a good article, its bias is that "programming time is expensive". This may be true, but as discussed earlier in Background and motivation, there are cases when programming time is still the most viable option or the only option available. It also may be the only option open to you, the developer.

To summarize some of the main points from the Zend article, other options to consider when trying to improve performance include:

• Upgrade the hardware on which your PHP server is running.
• Upgrade the Operating System (OS). Zend suggests using a UNIX-based system such as Linux or BSD UNIX.
• Reconsider the choice of database. For example, if your application does not need stored procedures and sub-queries, then consider MySQL for improved performance.
• Consider the use of the Zend Optimizer (free) and Zend Cache. While these products support most of the major platforms, they currently are not available for all platforms on which PHP is supported.