Lecture: Writing native PHP extensions using PHP-CPP
Summary
PHP-CPP is a new open source C++ library that makes writing native extensions for PHP extremely simple. In this talk you will see how much faster C++ code is compared to PHP, and how easy it is to use PHP-CPP for porting your algorithms from PHP to C++.
Description
Traditionally, writing native PHP extensions required deep knowledge of the Zend engine, and was much more difficult than writing regular user space PHP scripts. With the introduction of the PHP-CPP library, this distinction has gone: it now is just as easy to write object oriented and well structured native C++ code, and combine this native code with functions and classes from PHP pages.
Based on examples ranging from a simple 'Hello world' application to full object oriented frameworks using classes, interfaces, lambda functions and exception handling you will see how you can give a massive performance boost to your algorithms, with straight forward looking code that is almost similar to the code you once wrote in PHP.
In this talk, the PHP-CPP library will also be compared to other emerging technologies like HHVM, Hack and Zephir: what are the advantages of using C++, and in which situations is it better to stick to PHP? And when does it make sense to switch to new languages like Hack and Zephir, considering that using C++ is just as simple?