I finally converted from the old school way of database access in PHP to use PDO (plus, I dig recursive acronyms). I used to use either the straight mysql_* API or a database abstraction class, but I have to admit, PDO is the way to go. It’s like someone took all the best features of the other database abstraction projects out there and put them all together in one place. It supports SQL transactions and prepared statements too (things I haven’t bothered to use yet).
The MySQL PDO libraries aren’t terribly hard to set up, but you have to compile PHP for it. You also have to edit your php.ini file and specify the extension_dir and the PDO extensions (extension=pdo.so and pdo_mysql.so). I suppose in Windows much of this is already done for you. Weenies.
Happy Talk Like a Pirate Day, mateys!