OT: PHP JIT/Compiler - massive speedup

[Tyler Aviss]

On Tue, Feb 2, 2010 at 7:00 PM, D. Hugh Redelmeier <hugh-pmF8o41NoarQT0dZR+AlfA at public.gmane.org> wrote:
> | From: Pete Lancashire <pete-6NP59FE1ho9MFQD/ygXjfdBPR1lH4CV8 at public.gmane.org>
>
> http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/update_facebook_rewrites_php_runtime_with_project.php
>
> Interesting quote:
>
>    "HipHop executes the source code in a semantically equivalent manner,"
>    Zhao continues, "and sacrifices some rarely used features - such as eval()
>    - in exchange for improved performance."
>
> "eval" is the kind of thing that is easy in an interpreter and hard
> for a compiler.  And the kind of thing that interpretive language
> advocates often tout as a feature.  It is also a frequent source of
> security holes.
>
> Is eval (and the like) rare in php code?  Rare in good php code?
>
> A JIT using G++ seems rather ponderous.
> --
> The Toronto Linux Users Group.      Meetings: http://gtalug.org/
> TLUG requests: Linux topics, No HTML, wrap text below 80 columns
> How to UNSUBSCRIBE: http://gtalug.org/wiki/Mailing_lists
>

Some systems which make use of dynamic code/plugins use eval quite a
bit. For example 'vbulletin', which is a fairly popular bboard system.


-- 
Tyler Aviss
Systems Support
LPIC/LPIC-2

“Even enemies will help each other if they are together on a boat that
is in trouble. ” – Sun Tzu
--
The Toronto Linux Users Group.      Meetings: http://gtalug.org/
TLUG requests: Linux topics, No HTML, wrap text below 80 columns
How to UNSUBSCRIBE: http://gtalug.org/wiki/Mailing_lists