diff --git a/lib/ctype/ctype.php b/lib/ctype/ctype.php
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..5d15977e
--- /dev/null
+++ b/lib/ctype/ctype.php
@@ -0,0 +1,24 @@
+<?php
+
+if (!function_exists('ctype_alpha')) {
+  function ctype_alpha($string)
+  {
+    return preg_match('/^[a-z]+$/i', $string);
+  }
+}
+
+if (!function_exists('ctype_xdigit')) {
+  function ctype_xdigit($string)
+  {
+    return preg_match('/^[0-9a-f]+$/i', $string);
+  }
+} 
+
+if (!function_exists('ctype_space')) {
+  function ctype_space($string)
+  {
+    return preg_match('/^[\s]$/', $string);
+  }
+} 
+
+?>
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/src/phpfreechat.class.php b/src/phpfreechat.class.php
index 30ba2f9a..5f124bd9 100644
--- a/src/phpfreechat.class.php
+++ b/src/phpfreechat.class.php
@@ -381,6 +381,7 @@ function loadStyles($theme = 'default', &$xml_reponse)
     $js = '';//file_get_contents(dirname(__FILE__).'/client/createstylerule.js');
     $js .= 'var c = $H();';
     $path = $c->getFilePathFromTheme('style.css.php');
+    require_once dirname(__FILE__).'/../lib/ctype/ctype.php'; // to keep compatibility for php without ctype support
     require_once dirname(__FILE__).'/../lib/csstidy-1.2/class.csstidy.php';
     $css = new csstidy();
     $css->set_cfg('preserve_css',false);
diff --git a/testcase/ctype.php b/testcase/ctype.php
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..5e4fe767
--- /dev/null
+++ b/testcase/ctype.php
@@ -0,0 +1,47 @@
+<?php
+
+//
+// TO RUN THIS TESTCASE : PREFIX THE FUNCTIONS NAMES BY my_ IN lib/ctype/ctype.php
+//
+
+require_once dirname(__FILE__).'/../lib/ctype/ctype.php';
+
+// examples for verifying
+$test[] = "";
+$test[] = "\t";
+$test[] = "\r";
+$test[] = "\n";
+$test[] = "                  ";
+$test[] = "\n-";
+$test[] = " x";
+$test[] = "12 3";
+$test[] = ".  abc";
+$test[] = "abc";
+$test[] = "AzEdFDe";
+$test[] = "ABC9";
+$test[] = "aBcF4";
+$test[] = "0123456789ABCDEFabcdef";
+$test[] = "034DEFa5612789ABCbcdef";
+$test[] = "012djgfbbku3456789ABCDEFabcdef";
+
+
+echo "ctype_space()"."<br />";
+foreach ($test as $a)
+{
+    echo $a .  " : " . ((my_ctype_space($a)) ? "true" : "false") ." : " . ((ctype_space($a)) ? "true" : "false") ."<br />";
+}
+
+
+echo "ctype_xdigit()"."<br />";
+foreach ($test as $a)
+{
+    echo $a .  " : " . ((my_ctype_xdigit($a)) ? "true" : "false").  " : " . ((ctype_xdigit($a)) ? "true" : "false") ."<br />";
+}
+
+echo "ctype_alpha()"."<br />";
+foreach ($test as $a)
+{
+    echo $a .  " : " . ((my_ctype_alpha($a)) ? "true" : "false") ." : " . ((ctype_alpha($a)) ? "true" : "false") ."<br />";
+}
+
+?>
\ No newline at end of file