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What I don't like with all the hype around MySpace is that we forget older community sites. Community Connect is just an example of early, mostly ignored by the press, innovators. They had AsianAvenue, MiGente, and BlackPlanet. My profile on AsianAvenue dates back to 1997!!! Back then, we were all teenagers putting our lives on our profile pages with annoying background music and raunchy pictures. It wasn't too different from what MySpace is now. This makes me think we'll probably see a Web 2.0 bust.

Why implement it in Java? Why not just create a Zend/PHP extension using C, interface with the Zend engine's byte code executor and intercept function / method calls and execute advise functions before and after?

Then all you'd need is a single function to call in PHP like this:

aop_register_advice('my_function', 'my_advice_function', BEFORE_CALL);
aop_register_advice(array($myobj, 'myMethod'), 'my_advice_function', AFTER_CALL);

Code already exists to perform this kind of interception in PHP debuggers / profilers like APD and Xdebug.

One great aspect of open source is that, frequently, the code you need will probably already have been written. (pun intended)

Now if a bunch of free-software peeps were to assemble such a graphics lib and release it for all to use...

Gaussian blur, anybody?

NEXT! (-:

Several ways. I personally use APC. Zend has a few products that speed up PHP performance.

APC should be even faster.

Then use the Alternative PHP Cache, and get that speed up another 25-400% (depending on the size and complexity of your program. Eat that, java.

php is way to slow for big sites :*( unfortunately with out some state of the art cache.

obviously you dont know about this: http://apc.communityconnect.com/about.html

apt-get install php4-apc, or download from here.

Anyone have any experience with APC?

Personally, I don't like it when things intended to shock, gross out, or disturb people are posted. Why not some _useful_ sites such as GrSecurity, useful for hardening linux kernels (the ACL system is nice). Incidentally, they just released a new version.

How about APC, a nice open-source free PHP cache. The CVS version is more and more stable each day.

Slashdot is "News For Nerds", not "News for the mentally disturbed". Let's try to keep it to useful/funny topics that are relevant to nerds, geeks, and the like.

Perhaps someone should start SlashWTF.org for news like this.

Someone already has. It's called APC, for Alternative PHP Cache. It's an open source PHP bytecode cache. I don't know if it works with PHP running as a CGI program or not, but the website doesn't say that it doesn't, so...

PHP scripts are compiled in run-time. You can speed up PHP significantly by using a "Cache" module that stores precompiled php scripts (compiled ONLY the first time they are requested) in memory that is shared among requests. APC is a great one and is available at: http://apc.communityconnect.com/

Zend (http://zend.com) Also has a number of PHP goodies! Expect some significant speed improvements when using a cache! I highly recommend them!

x

Have you tried the open source PHP optimizer APC:

http://apc.communityconnect.com/

PHP is a great language, but there are a couple minor problems. While PHP is an Apache module, you can't actually write other modules in PHP.

ahem, yes you can

With any PHP-based solution, you have to hit the DB every time you want to get anything dynamic.

You must not have a clue how slashcode works, or you have never heard of database caching.

Also, psuedo-compiled versions of Perl modules are stored and re-used in Apache. PHP scripts have to be interpreted every time they're accessed. Unless, of course, you use the Zend optimizer, but it is not open source.

You may also be thinking of the Zend Cache, or the Alternative PHP Cache, which is open. You really need to check your facts before you bash on PHP. :)

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First, read this slash about 4 Web Scripting Languages compared. It refers to a ZDNET article which benchmarked and came up with the following results:

PHP: 47pps
ASP: 43pps
CF: 29pps
JSP: 13pps
(pps = pages per second).

The JSP was done with Tomcat, which is apparently not the fastest implementation.

The real interesting thing is, the test was done before the advent of caching technology for PHP. Since then, the Zend Cache and the APC Cache have been released. Now, sit back for a second.

I played around with these babies. Generally, the APC cache doubled my pps, and the Zend Cache QUADRUPLED my pps. Other benchmarks posted on mailing lists showed comparable results. (Note that the tests were done on the same server with the same apps using ab - and of course the results weren't so good for particlulary db intensive pages). I am not shitting you about those results. The stuff flies as the cache stores the compiled object code and doesn't need to recompile on every pageview.

So, lets look at those results again and hypothetically extend them (just for shits and grins):

PHP+ZendCache: 198 pps
PHP+APC: 94 pps
PHP: 47pps
ASP: 43pps
CF: 29pps
JSP: 13pps

Not sure where mod_perl, C, or native servlets fit in there, but that's a pretty impressive showing by PHP.

g

If you add the Zend optimization engine, it's even faster if you're doing alot of loops and such.

Yeah, I like Zend too, but there are other PHP caches available as well, such as:

• PC - the Alternative PHP Cache: http://apc.communityconnect.com/
• There is also: http://0x00.org/phpCache/

Haven't played with them myself, but I've heard plenty of good things about APC.