PHP like many other web technologies is an interpreted language. When a web page is requested from the web server, the php code associated to the page is interpreted and executed on a fly and as a result dynamic html is produced. For every php web request a new process is forked and that process takes care of interpreting the language which is called process based execution. As a fact forking a process is a very costly system operation and as the load on the server increases the time of execution and memory becomes inverse. In addition to this interpretation of the language also consumes some time. For a web application with millions of page views all the above operations can make the web server unresponsive/crash.

To solve one part of the latency, i.e., interpretation, we could make use of PHP compiler. PHP Compiler compiles a PHP web page into its corresponding DLL. DLL is nothing more than a C executable file. Anytime , there is only one instance of the DLL loaded in the memory while different resources uses just its memory images for execution which would make them more memory efficient. And with this DLL approach we eliminate the interpretation stage of the php life cycle thus saving some latency. In addition to saving latency and better memory management, there are lot more advantages:

1. Does not require a interpreter to be installed or packaged. No need of mod_php in the Apache server.

2. Compile complete source tree in a single executable.

3. Once compiled, irreversable to original PHP code.

4. Embedding the compiled code into a micro web server serves as a offline web application.

5. Creating common libraries can be shared between different applications on the same server.

Since the code is hidden we can easily distribute the code with out worrying about code getting stolen. Packaging online web application into offline web application using a micro web server would be a big win for internet companies.

Note: RoadSend is one such PHP Compiler that could help you with your web application performance.

]]> http://www.rajeshsegu.com/2008/04/compiled-php-applications/feed/ 1 http://www.rajeshsegu.com/2008/04/server-side-javascript/ http://www.rajeshsegu.com/2008/04/server-side-javascript/#comments Thu, 24 Apr 2008 10:12:26 +0000 admin http://www.rajeshsegu.com/?p=8 Its been almost 4 years since I first started coding JavaScript and I have to agree that its an awesome programming language. Most people think JavaScript is a client-side browser dependent inconsistent programming languages with tons of if’s and but’s. I have to admit that its the problem of inconsistent implementation of the DOM model across different browsers.

JavaScript, also called EMCAScript, like any other programming language has a real spec. It’s been majorly considered to be a client-side scripting language to make the front-end of any web-based product more interactive. But, recently, there has been lot of work going on to adopt JavaScript as a server side technology.

There are tons of projects which are using JS on the server side to churn out html at the web-server’s end. These projects range from simple to most complex solutions.  mod_js is the most simple solution ( proof of concept ) which is a stand alone apache module that allows to execute JavaScript ( EmcaScript ) on the server.  While, Jaxar, a java container which enables to code JavaScript on the server side.  And as a server it offers access to files, processes, databases, networking, logging, scalability, security and extensibility.

With all these developments going on its for sure that something big is coming. The peices are falling into place and setting stage for the next big thing on the server-side. Think about just one technology on both server as well as client-side which would filter a lot of mess in the existing solutions. With the tools, technology and need its just the matter of hype thats needed for it to flourish.

Today Ajax, a derivative of JavaScript, is so hyped and successful. It took some time to evolve and get adopted with all the sexy cool features.  Let the saga follow and may JavaScript win again!!

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