Specifically, they used to compile PHP to C++ then to native binaries. Now they are deploying a PHP to virtual machine code compiler with a JIT compiling virtual machine.
Posted Dec 20, 2011 12:55 UTC (Tue) by sorpigal (subscriber, #36106)
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Am I the only one who thinks this is crazy? At what point do you get so much NIHitis that you think you should be writing your own compilers and VMs for a crappy web language instead of switching to a non-crappy one? The first time it was done could be seen as an emergency measure to help along legact code, but at that point shouldn't your lesson be learned and shouldn't you be trying to find the useful replacement for PHP and not just bandaiding it again and again?
Cracks in the Foundation (PHP Advent)
Posted Dec 20, 2011 15:32 UTC (Tue) by HelloWorld (guest, #56129)
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> At what point do you get so much NIHitis that you think you should be writing your own compilers and VMs for a crappy web language instead of switching to a non-crappy one?
Well, if it's easier/cheaper to write a better implementation of the language than to switch the language, it's clearly the right thing to do, isn't it?
Cracks in the Foundation (PHP Advent)
Posted Dec 21, 2011 13:59 UTC (Wed) by andreasb (subscriber, #80258)
[Link]
[wildspeculation]Maybe Facebook found that they get off cheaper by investing in a handful of people who know how to write compilers and virtual machines so that they can continue to let dime-a-dozen PHP coders do the bulk of the frontend work.[/wildspeculation]