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Date: Fri, 9 Jan 2015 17:46:53 -0800
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To: Andrea Faulds <ajf@ajf.me>
Cc: Pierre Joye <pierre.php@gmail.com>, PHP internals <internals@lists.php.net>
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Subject: Re: [PHP-DEV] One API to rule them all? (Was: Extension Prepend Files)
From: pollita@php.net (Sara Golemon)

On Fri, Jan 9, 2015 at 5:41 PM, Andrea Faulds <ajf@ajf.me> wrote:
> Three APIs for TheFacebook under the sky,
> Seven for the Zend-lords in their halls of stone,
> Nine for the Engines doomed to die,
> One for the Dark Lord on his dark throne,
> In the Land of Native where the Undefined Behaviours lie.
> One API to rule them all, One API to find them,
> One API to bring them all and in the darkness bind them
> In the Land of Native where the Undefined Behaviours lie.
>
*slowclap*

> I think this is a good idea. Most PHP extensions do not require
> tight coupling to the Zend Engine (or indeed HHVM). Something
> simple which exposes class, function and constant definition,
> and abstract PHP value (zval) handling, would be enough for
> the vast majority of extensions, I should think.
>
Exactly.  This is what we learned from making ext_zend_compat.  Basic
glue extensions are the majority, those places where a lot of
extensions currently "link deep" are simply because they can, but not
because they need to.

> There=E2=80=99ll always be a place for tightly-coupled extensions which
> need to use the engine=E2=80=99s =E2=80=9Cnative=E2=80=9D API, but someth=
ing simple and
> cross-implementation would work for most extensions, allow
> better cross-implementation PHP code compatibility, and generally
> be a Good Thing(TM), I think.
>
For the handful that do funky stuff like OpCache+, Xdebug, etc... They
can explicitly reach behind the artifice with the understanding that
they're not necessarily going to work from version to version without
loads of #ifdefs and kinky machinations.

-Sara