Date: 08/16/06 (PHP Community)    Keywords: php, software, web, hosting

I'm working on an open source project called Appleseed, which requires server-to-server communication.

I'm trying to decide whether I should roll my own classes using internal PHP functions like stream_context_create (), or if I should use the CURL library.

I've benchmarked them both, and the CURL library is really close to the raw functions as far as speed goes.

Does anybody have any recommendations? The only reason I'm hesitant about CURL is that I really want this software to be very easy to install, even on a typical $9 a month php hosting account.

Considering that, how widespread is CURL support amongst php webhosts?

Also, if anybody has rolled their own functions before, how difficult can it be? I'll mostly just be transferring data between servers, nothing too complicated. Maybe CURL is overkill for that?

Thanks!

Source: http://community.livejournal.com/php/484379.html