Re: [RFC] Replace the flex-based scanner with an re2c [1] based lexer

Hello Rasmus, Monday, March 3, 2008, 12:25:52 AM, you wrote: > Stanislav Malyshev wrote: >> Hi! >> >>> be much easier, switching to re2c promises a much faster lexer. >>> Actually, >>> without any specific re2c optimizations we already get around a 20% >>> scanner >> >> I think 20% faster is very cool. >> However, as I understand re2c is not a standard tool found everywhere. >> So what happens if you wanted to use it on some exotic system where >> re2c is not readily available as manintainer-supported software? Also, >> flex is available on Windows for example as part of cygwin, while I >> don't see re2c there. > I don't think this part is a concern since we have required re2c for > quite a while now to build many critical parts of PHP. People who > actually need to regenerate the parser files are the same people for > whom it is trivial to figure out how to install re2c. And yes, it would > of course be good to use a released version of re2c, but I think by the > time 5.3 is ready to go the version of re2c we need will be out there. > Since it is Marcus' baby, he can just push it out, I don't think this is > a stumbling block either. Some of the new stuff in re2c was > specifically added to make it easier to write a PHP parser, so I don't > think backporting to an older version is really an option. Right. The current re2c development cycle is solely dedicated to be able to rewrite the PHP scanners. I will update re2c whenever necessary during the remaining development cycle and release a new stable release before we release PHP 5.3. Best regards, Marcus