Newsgroups: php.internals
Path: news.php.net
Xref: news.php.net php.internals:56846
Mailing-List: contact internals-help@lists.php.net; run by ezmlm
Received-SPF: error (pb1.pair.com: domain mindplay.dk from 209.85.161.170 cause and error)
MIME-Version: 1.0
Date: Thu, 8 Dec 2011 18:28:44 -0500
Message-ID: <CADqTB_gr_vy3b1SDYfLLh2kCAWR8psdAbEE4Hm38L1E6kGKY9A@mail.gmail.com>
To: internals@lists.php.net
Content-Type: multipart/alternative; boundary=bcaec53968f486108f04b39d0770
Subject: Phalanger
From: rasmus@mindplay.dk (Rasmus Schultz)

--bcaec53968f486108f04b39d0770
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1

Don't take this the wrong way, I'm merely trying to provoke your thoughts a
bit with this e-mail! :-)

Has it occurred to anyone, to abandon the official PHP codebase and adopt
Phalanger instead?

Some convincing (to me) points:

- Phalanger runs on Mono, meaning similar platform-reach as PHP. (but
eliminating most platform-specific implementations.)

- It's fast. (probably fast enough to mostly eliminate the need for native
extensions in general.)

- The community would be able to write modules/extensions in PHP or other
CLR languages.

- It's secure. (not that C/FFI PHP extensions tend not to be trustworthy,
but they do tend to come from a relatively small group of authors.)

- Access to more languages means a much bigger community who can contribute
extensions and core patches.

- Access to existing CLR codebases means more third-party libraries can be
readily integrated without writing and maintainting C/FFI wrappers.

- The codebase is new, clean and modern (it's not dragging around a lot of
legacy baggage.)

- Fully take advantage of new 64-bit hardware (vector computations and
larger address space) in all aspects. (core, extensions, PHP scripts).

I'm not going to try to sell you on the fact that the integration with the
Windows world is tighter in Phalanger than in PHP - but it is a point that
carries considerable weight  to many businesses.

People I know have had a tendency to view Phalanger as "PHP for Windows" -
it's really not. It's PHP for CLR - and CLR is not (only) Windows. And it
is readily available on most modern operating systems with good support for
various hardware platforms.

Now, before you start flaming me - I'd love to hear precisely why you're
eager to hang on to the C codebase. What are the benefits of the C codebase
over Phalanger?

I understand the licensing may be an issue. It may be the argument that
outweighs everything else, but I'm curious to hear what else would keep you
from moving to Phalanger?

Thanks!

- Rasmus Schultz

--bcaec53968f486108f04b39d0770--