Re: Will PHP ever "grow up" and have threading?

Tommy Pham wrote: > As such, let's dissect what you mentioned: > > 1) PHP with internal thread support > 2) PHP with external C/C++ thread support That's not quite what I mentioned, but I'll accept it for the sake of argument. > * Performance - having external thread support, now you have to call > an extension (more memory usage and CPU cycles). Tommy, you are already using millions of more cycles by running PHP instead of C. It's a reasonable trade-off of course, but "using more cycles" is not a valid counter-argument. > If you happen to have a C/C++ guru who can then code that thread > support into PHP extension, wouldn't it still perform better at the > core vs as an extension because it's not talking to a 'middle man'? It's another trade-off Tommy - you run two separate processes, talking to each other over TCP (for instance) to gain 1) performance and 2) flexibility/scalability. You gain performance by having processes that can be independently scheduled by the OS, and you gain flexibility by being able to move a process to another box (for scalability). You pay for that with a few thousand cycles. When you decide to use a database (e.g. mysql) you also make a trade-off - well-managed data, a structured query-language and some overhead vs. doing it all in your own code. > * Portability - if you're currently running PHP on Windows, but manage > to convince management to switch to *BSD/Linux, then you'd have to > rewrite that external thread support. If portability is a concern, I'd make sure my threaded backend would run on all the platforms I could envision. Portability is merely one of many factors that affect choice of programming language. > * Managability - should your need to upgrade PHP for either bug fix, > new features you'd want to implement to add more functionality to your > site, will that then break your custom external solution? How much > more manageable is it if it's done under 1 language versus 2+? I said it yesterday already - having a single implementation language IS a positive, but it may not always be possible due to requirements. -- Per Jessen, Zürich (12.3°C)