# SPL Article Published


By Ben Ramsey

Published on September 26, 2007


Today, Zend Developer Zone published [my article on the Standard PHP Library](http://devzone.zend.com/1075/the-standard-php-library-spl/) (SPL).

All too often, I think developers overlook the SPL because it appears massively unwieldy and difficult to understand. While it is often difficult to understand due to lack of proper documentation (articles/tutorials/examples), it is not unwieldy. Rather, it's fairly easy to use... once you get the hang of it. And getting the hang of it requires a good introduction, which is why I wrote this article.

My article was originally intended to be part of a series of articles about features and functionality in PHP 5 that provided a case for adopting/upgrading to PHP 5. Cal Evans, editor-in-chief of Zend Developer Zone, ultimately decided against publishing these articles in a "series" format, but I think the individual articles that were published still fit together fairly well for making a case to upgrade to PHP 5.

The articles are:

* "[Zend Framework and the New Hybrid Designer](http://devzone.zend.com/1027/zend-framework-and-the-new-hybrid-designer/)" by Nick Lo
* "[XML and PHP 5](http://devzone.zend.com/1035/xml-and-php-5/)" by Rob Richards
* "[The Standard PHP Library](http://devzone.zend.com/1075/the-standard-php-library-spl/)" by me