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Date: Wed, 10 Nov 2021 09:35:07 +0100
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To: Tim Starling <tstarling@wikimedia.org>, Dmitry Stogov <DStogov@perforce.com>
Cc: PHP internals <internals@lists.php.net>
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Subject: Re: [PHP-DEV] VM kinds
From: nikita.ppv@gmail.com (Nikita Popov)

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On Wed, Nov 10, 2021 at 8:13 AM Tim Starling <tstarling@wikimedia.org>
wrote:

> What are VM kinds for? Are they just a prototyping tool to allow
> different implementation strategies to be benchmarked? Or are they
> permanent? Does anyone use them?
>
> I ask because I'm working on a VM bug, and non-default VM kinds make
> already complex code even more complex and harder to edit.
>
> -- Tim Starling
>

I don't think anyone uses them, and the GOTO/SWITCH VMs receive little
testing in practice (we don't use them in CI), and I believe they're not
supported by the JIT either. Personally, I would be fine with simply
dropping them, as they do add additional maintenance burden without any
apparent benefit. Maybe Dmitry has some thoughts on this.

Regards,
Nikita

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