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Subject: Re: [PHP-DEV] [Discussion] FFI in PHP
From: mike@php.net (Michael Wallner)

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From: Michael Wallner <mike@php.net>
To: Alex Bowers <bowersbros@gmail.com>, PHP <internals@lists.php.net>
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Subject: Re: [PHP-DEV] [Discussion] FFI in PHP
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On 05/02/17 23:25, Alex Bowers wrote:
> And here is the previous messaging without borked formatting. Sorry fol=
ks.
>=20
>=20
> FFI RFC
> =3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D
>=20
> There are many languages that support an FFI implementation.
>=20
> NodeJS
> Python
> C++
> Ruby
>=20
> FFI allows you to call a native C function without requiring the
> boilerplate of an extension to be written.
>=20
> There are several benefits to having FFI
>=20
> - Performance
> - Shareability / Bundling
> - Common functionality between languages
>=20
> Performance
> =3D=3D=3D
> Although less pronounced than the 5.x versions, there is still a
> performance benefit to having native C code over PHP code. For
> example, you could utilise threading inside of your FFI methods, which
> PHP does not expose the ability to do.
>=20
> Shareability
> =3D=3D=3D
>=20
> If you wish to implement some of your source code in C, the current
> way to share it is to build it as an extension. This is cumbersome,
> and restricts use-cases such as shared hosting, where the ability to
> install your own extensions is probably restricted. However, with FFI,
> the shared object can be loaded from any location, and so that
> restriction is no longer in place.
>=20
> They could even be distributed via composer.
>=20
> Common functionality between languages
> =3D=3D=3D
>=20
> If you have some complex logic that needs to be replicated in several
> languages for whatever reason; implementing it several times over
> would lead to uncertain bugs and technical debt increasing heavily. If
> you could share the same logic amongst them all using FFI, then this
> is no longer an issue.
>=20
> Example
> =3D=3D=3D
>=20
> Take an example of a rust program that takes two numbers in and gives
> you the sum of them.
>=20
> ```rust
> #[no_mangle]
> pub extern fn add(a: i32, b: i32) -> i32 {
>     a + b
> }
>=20
> ```
>=20
> with the Cargo.toml file containing:
>=20
> ```
> [package]
> name =3D "math"
> version =3D "0.1.0"
> authors =3D ["Alex Bowers <bowersbros@gmail.com>"]
>=20
> [dependencies]
>=20
> [lib]
> name =3D "math"
> crate-type =3D ["dylib"]
> ```
>=20
> `cargo build --release` will create `.so`, `.dylib`, or `.dll` files
> depending on your system.
>=20
> These should be usable within PHP using the exposed functions.
>=20
> ```php
> $math =3D ffi("/path/to/math.so");
> $result =3D $math->add(1, 5);
>=20
> echo $result; // 6
> ```
>=20
> With the implementation at its most basic level, calling the `add`
> method with incorrect parameters would likely cause a segfault.
>=20
> A way around that could be that the methods are not immediately
> exposed, but have to be configured.
>=20
> Something like:
>=20
> ```php
> $math =3D ffi("/path/to/math.so");
> $math->add(1, 5); // Throws RuntimeException, method not configured
>=20
> $math->configure('add', int $a, int $b);
>=20
> $math->add(1, 5); // 6
> $math->add('a', 5); Fatal error: Uncaught TypeError: Argument 1 passed
> to add() must be of the type integer, string given
> ```
>=20
> Prior art:
> =3D=3D=3D
> https://pecl.php.net/package/ffi - Last release > 13
> yearshttps://github.com/mgdm/MFFI - Not stable, last commit > 1 year,
> no releases
>=20

Trying to add answers later today, in the meantime, please have a look
at https://github.com/m6w6/ext-psi


--=20
Regards,
Mike


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