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phpstack - A TCP/IP Stack and Web Server in PHP

Posted by michael on from the recursive dept.

Adam Dunkels writes "Following the trend of writing 'inappropriate' programs in the PHP scripting language, I have written a small TCP/IP stack and a web server entirely in PHP. It is extremely stripped down: the IP stack only implements the most basic functionality required for running the web server and the web server cannot handle pages larger than 1.5k. Nevertheless, the stack is able to support an unlimited number of simultaneous TCP connections and the web server has support for PHP scripting. A live demonstration server is up and running the phpstack software."

2 of 295 comments (clear)

  1. Re:That is a VERY limited system.... by igrp · · Score: 5, Insightful
    Hmm... To quote the server's main page:

    Welcome to the phpstack demo server! phpstack is a small TCP/IP stack and web server written in PHP. It is a quick and dirty proof-of-concept hack and shouldn't be taken too seriously.

    Well, it clearly says it's a PoC hack so why not cut this author some slack? To be perfectly honest, I think this is rather impressive in more than one way. Sure, this isn't exactly a novel idea but that wasn't the point. It clearly is a show of flexibility. Php wasn't designed with these kinds of applications in mind, yet it seems to handle this kind of stuff impressingly well.

    Also, it testifies to the fact that thinking outside the box is a good thing. I mean, come on, what would you rather see yet another mail client or some cool project that makes you go "hmm, how come I never thought of this"?

  2. Re:That is a VERY limited system.... by Fearless+Freep · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Yeah, I wrote a quick and dirty proof of concept distributed object client/server in Python in about two hours, but I wouldn't post it to slashdot. Quick and dirty proofs of concepts are what progreammers do every day...so what?