AmsterdamPHP

Monthly Meeting - October/2013 (with PHPBenelux)

Oct 17, 2013 · 7:00 PM
Copernica

We'll be organizing October's meeting together with PHPBenelux! For their meeting in the Netherlands they chose Amsterdam, and what better way to make it awesome than to organize it with AmsterdamPHP :)

September's topic will be combining PHP with C++!

Our speaker will be Emiel Bruijntjes and he'll tell us all about speeding up PHP with C++. The meeting will be sponsored by our friends at Copernica.

Schedule

19:00: Welcome Drinks
19:30 - 20:30: "Speeding up PHP – mixing PHP with C++"
20:30 - 20:45: Raffle
20:45: Social, drinks and food.

Talk: Speeding up PHP - mixing PHP with C++

PHP is a language designed for creating web pages – but for running complicated CPU or memory intensive algorithms not always the most appropriate choice. In such situations you better switch to a language like C or C++.

However, although PHP offers a C API that allows one to combine PHP and C/C++, using this API is tough. The PHP C API is not very well documented - and could have a better and simpler structure. Most PHP developers therefore never consider writing in C, and stick to their PHP scripts – with good reason.

That's why the PHP-CPP library is being developed. To overcome the problems that the C API has, Copernica is building a C++ library that is easy to use, and that has an object oriented structure. This library allows developers to move their algorithms and data structures from PHP to C++, and speed up applications significantly.

Emiel Bruijntjes will show examples of how to use the C++ library, and will speak about the design of the library, and the plans he has with it. This presentation will also be the first time the library is showed to the public, so feedback and thoughts from the audience are greatly appreciated.

Speaker: Emiel Bruijntjes

Emiel Bruijntjes has been working with PHP for more then 10 years. He is one of the founders of Copernica BV. This year he has been working on MailerQ, a fast and flexible MTA that uses AMQP message queues, and PHP-CPP, a C++ library for building PHP extensions.

Raffle

We got some awesome stuff to give away this month, so make sure you CHECK IN once you arrive at the meetup if you want a shot at getting it!

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A former member

Really cool meetup. The topic was very interesting and it does have a point in going native.
However, let's face it, we're PHP Developers not C++. It's not that easy to port from PHP to C++, you still need to do some changes specially if it's a heavy thing.
In my point of view, I'm going to 'wait' for Zephir (for PhalconPHP). Seems more interesting and less difficult to make us port a system in PHP that can be a bottleneck in PHP but not in 'C'.

1 · October 18, 2013
- View all 7 replies
- Rob T.
  
  i disagree, i don't think that another language, especially a language that is maintained by only a few core-developers, is the best choice here. If you want true performance you want to be able to optimize it yourself, not on how code is generated for you by some third-party cross-compiler. If you want code to be optimized automaticly, go for HHVM.
  
  0 · October 18, 2013
- A former member
  
  Well, if what you're aiming is maintainability, then a language closer to PHP will be better than forcing PHP Developers to start using C++.
  If you're aiming for optimization, then you'd do your code in C, since it's better performant.
  There are trade-offs... To raise a community around it either it's a thing that everyone knows (and likes) or it has to be a thing that it's easily learned without learning a really new language.
  
  0 · October 18, 2013
- Rob T.
  
  Well, if there is a bug in the extension you've written, when using c++ you can be pretty sure that it's properly you're own fault, instead of not knowing if the bug occurs because of you're code in Zephir or because of what Zephir made of it.
  
  0 · October 18, 2013
- A former member
  
  How it will Zephir behave, I don't know... But what I know is that I NEED to learn C++ to use php-cpp.
  Meanwhile, please notice that I am NOT saying that is a bad language or a bad tool to use... Actually it is very powerful and for those who know C++, yeah I'd recommend it.
  
  Now, back int your argument... So if something went wrong with the way php-cpp parses the code to .so, then it would be ok???
  
  That argument wouldn't allow you to use anything since anything you develop is using something :)
  
  0 · October 18, 2013
- Emiel B.
  
  It's nice to hear that you've enjoyed the talk.
  
  Zephir and PHP-CPP are projects that both try to solve the same problem: the fact that writing PHP extensions in C is (too) complicated. But the solutions that both projects offer are different. Zephir is a brand new programming language that is easy to use, and that can be compiled into native PHP extensions. PHP-CPP on the other hand takes an existing language (C++), and uses its features to simplify the process of extension building.
  
  Both approaches are correct - at least in theory.
  
  However, creating a completely new language is not an easy task. And the PHP-CPP project convincingly shows that C++ has enough power and elegancy to simplify extension building as well. Why would you then go through this whole process of creating a new language?
  
  0 · October 18, 2013
- Emiel B.
  
  There are many good reasons to choose for C++. The language has been around since 1983 - the C language on which it is based even ten year longer. Big companies and organisations like Microsoft, IBM, GNU, Intel, Borland, Apple, etc have all built compilers for it, many conferences have been organized around it, the language has been standardized and is controlled by a committee with some of the brightest developers alive. The internet is full of documentation about C++, the number of books about C++ is immense, every university offers C++ courses, and because of its huge popularity, large user base, the massive amount of software built in it, and the fact that large companies are competing with each other, you can be sure that the language is extremely powerful and highly optimized.
  
  0 · October 18, 2013
- Emiel B.
  
  And since the invention of C a large number of native libraries have been developed. The moment you start writing C++ code, you have access to an ocean of libraries that is so huge that nobody can even oversee it.
  
  But the alternative is indeed Zephir. A completely new language, developed by a small group of volunteers. And you're right, it could theoretically one day indeed become just as good as C++ - and even better. But why wait for that? Go for C++! It's free, fast, has great support, and the PHP-CPP project shows that it is simple to use.
  
  0 · October 18, 2013
Cees-Jan K.

Last nights talk was good, a refreshing topic but still a bit rough around the edges. Social, as always: awesome!

0 · October 18, 2013
Frank de J.

I liked the topic, it's a refreshing one. The presentation was well executed and engaging, not giving 5 stars for the mere fact it won't be something I can't live without.

1 · October 18, 2013
Anne Jan B.

One of the most useful (meta) extensions ever seen.
Awesome talk!

1 · October 18, 2013
Sascha F.

Awesome talk. Looks like a nice excuse for me to sharpen up the cpp skillz once again. Thanks for hosting. Love the location, very nice none alcoholic beverages and great tasting pizzas!

0 · October 18, 2013
Bas de R.

Nice as always. Interesting talk. Now I have to make time to learn c++ as well.

2 · October 18, 2013
Luca T.

really really interesting...

0 · October 17, 2013
Dennis

i won't be able to come tonight

0 · October 17, 2013
Mitchell van W.

I won't be able to make it today. Will join next month

0 · October 17, 2013
Sanders

Ben helaas ziek. Volgende keer weer.

0 · October 17, 2013
Robin S.

Won't make it this time, and just gave up my spot! Have a good night all, and hope to see the slides somwhere ;)

0 · October 14, 2013
Ernst N.

I will be chilling in Portugal this time :). See you next time though!

0 · October 10, 2013