Re: Lang.Net Symposium 2008

Hello all, I've been reading the posts to this mailing list with considerable interest. Wez's post today w.r.t a new implementation on DLR prompts me to wonder about the extension interface. I have to declare an interest. I am working on an implementation of PHP which runs on a JVM. Like Phalanger, we wanted to make use of existing PHP extensions so we were faced with the problem of attaching these extensions to a managed runtime. We found that the interface between the extensions and the engine is quite a wide one. In many cases extensions read and write to the engine internal structures. It occurred to me that it might be valuable to attempt to define a narrower, more abstract extension interface. If this were possible, then it would allow looser coupling between extensions and the engine, allowing more scope for ZE2 optimization without breaking extensions. It should also make the extension interface simpler, more consistent and easier to use correctly. This would lead to more extensions of higher quality and less breakage from release to release. It would also allow extensions to be easily used with multiple PHP runtimes without dragging in large parts of ZE2. To be successful in this endeavour would clearly require buy-in from the PHP internals community but seems to me that in the long run, the PHP community at large benefit from there being multiple PHP runtimes. Having multiple implementations can only broaden the applicability of PHP still further. Other scripting languages already have first rate JVM and CLR implementations which are embraced by relevant the language community. It seems likely that multiple implementations can be used to cross check each other, and indeed I have already seen this happening at php.net. I know that the phalanger team found and reported many bugzillas to php.net and we have been trying to do the same. There are lots of opportunities for sharing tests too. I'd be interested to hear from anyone who would like to take this idea further or indeed has any opinion on this matter. Rob Nicholson. Unless stated otherwise above: IBM United Kingdom Limited - Registered in England and Wales with number 741598. Registered office: PO Box 41, North Harbour, Portsmouth, Hampshire PO6 3AU