I understand i could use Zend Encoder to be able to distribute my PHP scripts without people being able to see how they work or alter them? I'd like something (at least to start with) that was free or VERY much cheaper, is there an alternative, I've seen some, but I don't quite understand what it is I do with them. Do you write your PHP script and then "compile" it and upload it to your webserver or are these things built into the webserver and you just upload the PHP script and the webserver module "caches" it to save having to re-compile it each time it's needed?

I think what i'm asking is there something I can use to compile my PHP scripts so they can't be modified or re-sold without my permission, but they can still be used on 99% of cheap webhosting webservers.

I don't think i've phrased this very well but I've tried my best.

I've just seen this : http://sourceforge.net/projects/phpencoder/ but they don't seem to have got far enough into the project to have any downloads.

But maybe this : http://freshmeat.net/projects/turck-mmcache/ is what I'm after? Would it let me "compile" my scripts so that they were still usable on cheapo webhosting, or would the webserver need any special modules?

I'm having a conversation with myself here...

No it was no good. It has to be installed on the webserver from what I understand and it clearly isn't a widespread standard thing for them to have. So, any other thoughts?