Introduction to php7, its performance improvements, presenting alternative to boost your code if waiting for php7 is not an option, like hhvm, zephir or QB allowing immediate gains using php 5.5+. Presented at the Istanbul PHP Conference

1. PHP 7, HHVM & CO
#PHPKonf
Istanbul
Pierre Joye

2. PHP7, hhvm & co
Pierre Joye
@pierrejoye
pierre@php.net
http://www.slideshare.net/pierrej
PHP Core developer
Contributors to numerous OSS projects
Portability fan

3. PHP7, hhvm & co
Stats

4. PHP7, hhvm & co
Awesome new extension installer
https://github.com/FriendsOfPHP/pickle

5. PHP7, hhvm & co
What‘s going in the php world?
https://wiki.php.net/rfc/isset_ternary

6. PHP7, hhvm & co
PHP 5.3
2009 - 2014

7. PHP7, hhvm & co
PHP 5.4 and 5.5
Security fixes only

8. PHP7, hhvm & co
PHP 5.4
2012 - 2015

9. PHP7, hhvm & co
PHP 5.5
2013 - 2016

10. PHP7, hhvm & co
PHP 5.6.11 is out!

11. PHP7, hhvm & co
5 + 1 = 7

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6.6.6

13. PHP7, hhvm & co
PHP 7.0.0beta2 yesterday!

14. PHP7, hhvm & co
PHP 7.0 – Future is now

15. PHP7, hhvm & co
PHP 7.0 – speed++

16. PHP7, hhvm & co
LIES, DAMN LIES AND BENCHMARKS

17. PHP7, hhvm & co

18. PHP7, hhvm & co

19. PHP7, hhvm & co
Features
• Rewamped Engine
• True 64bit support
• Large string and LFS (Large file support)
• Consistent variables syntax
• Error exception instead of fatal error
• Scalar type declarations
• Zero cost asserts

20. PHP7, hhvm & co
Features
• Secure RNG
• PHP4 constructors deprecated
• JIT enabled PCRE
• Removed ext/mysql, ext/ereg and more
• New ?? Operator
• New JSON parser
• Many other features, a lot already target 7.1

21. PHP7, hhvm & co
Error exception instead of fatal error

22. PHP7, hhvm & co
Error exception
https://wiki.php.net/rfc/catchable-call-to-member-of-non-object
<?php
try {
$x = null;
var_dump($x->method());
// The exception class name is EngineException
// in alpha1
} catch (Error $e) {
// pass
}
echo "Aliven";

23. PHP7, hhvm & co
Scalar Type Declarations

24. PHP7, hhvm & co
Scalar Type Declarations
<?php
declare(strict_types = 1);
function add(int $a, int $b) : int {
return $a + $b;
}
$x = add(1, 2);
// The exception class name TypeException
// in alpha1
$y = add(0.1, 0.2); // TypeError exception
https://wiki.php.net/rfc/scalar_type_hints_v5

25. PHP7, hhvm & co
Null Coalesce Operator (??)

26. PHP7, hhvm & co
Null Coalesce Operator (??)
<?php
$username = $_GET['user'] ?? 'nobody';
$username = isset($_GET['user']) ? $_GET['user'] : 'nobody';
// Method/function call
$model = Model::get($id) ?? $default_model;
if (($model = Model::get($id)) === NULL) { $model =
$default_model; }
// Chained
$x = NULL; $y = NULL; $z = 3; var_dump($x ?? $y ?? $z);
https://wiki.php.net/rfc/isset_ternary

27. PHP7, hhvm & co
PHP Language Specification
https://github.com/php/php-langspec

28. PHP7, hhvm & co
Open & Public Specifications
Competions++

29. PHP7, hhvm & co

30. PHP7, hhvm & co

31. PHP7, hhvm & co
(Most) Focus on Speed

32. PHP7, hhvm & co

33. PHP7, hhvm & co
SPEED is NOT SCALE

34. PHP7, hhvm & co
SPEED is UX

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Scale is Server Side
Architecture (Apps, Ops, Net, …)

36. PHP7, hhvm & co
My code sucks.

37. PHP7, hhvm & co
Yours too.

38. PHP7, hhvm & co
Steroids++

39. PHP7, hhvm & co
So?

40. PHP7, hhvm & co

41. PHP7, hhvm & co

42. PHP7, hhvm & co
QB
<?php
class OilPaintFilter {
/** @var int32 */ public $levels = 25;
/** @var int32 */ public $filterSize = 5;
/** * @engine qb
*
* @param image $dst
* @param image $src
*
* @local float32[*][r,g,b,a] $bin
* @local float32 $max_intensity
* @local int32 $(current_index|max_index)
* @local int32 $(filter_x|filter_y|filter_offset)
* @local int32 $(x|y|x_limit|y_limit)
* @local int32 $(width|height)
* @local float32[r,g,b,a] $pixel
* @local float32 $multiplier */
public function filter(&$dst, $src) {…

43. PHP7, hhvm & co
QB
<?php
function calc($n, &$a) {
$b = 18;
while($n) {
$a = $b * $b * $b * $b;
$n--;
}
}
$n = 5000000;
$a = 0;
calc($n, $a); $end = microtime(true);

44. PHP7, hhvm & co
QB
Source: http://php-qb.net/index.php/2-uncategorised/27-comparing-performance-in-qb-with-hhvm
See http://benchmarksgame.alioth.debian.org/u32/performance.php?test=spectralnorm or other

45. PHP7, hhvm & co
Zephir

46. PHP7, hhvm & co
Zephir
Optimization & code generation
Compilation + optimization
Native execution

47. PHP7, hhvm & co
Zephir
namespace MyLibrary;
class Filter {
public function alpha(string str) {
char ch;
string filtered = "";
for ch in str {
if (ch >= 'a' && ch <= 'z') || (ch >=
'A' && ch <= 'Z') {
let filtered .= ch;
}
}
return filtered;
}
}

48. PHP7, hhvm & co
Zephir
<?php
$filter = new MyLibraryFilter();
echo $filter>alpha("01he#l.lo?/1");

49. PHP7, hhvm & co
PHP Alternative Implementations

50. PHP7, hhvm & co
PHP Alternative Implementations
• HHVM (native code)
• Recki-ct (native code)
• Phalanger (.net engine)

51. PHP7, hhvm & co

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HHVM
PHP Cache
Parser (AST in 7+)
HHVM Opcodes
Native Code
JIT ~
Cache

53. PHP7, hhvm & co

54. PHP7, hhvm & co
PHP
PHP Cache
Parser (AST in 7+)
OpCodes

55. PHP7, hhvm & co
Recki-ct

56. PHP7, hhvm & co
Recki-CT
PHP Cache
Parser (AST in 7+)
Recki IR
JIT~
Native Code

57. PHP7, hhvm & co
Recki-ct
php 5.5 Recki-CT hhvm 3.2 hippy-c qb
simple() 139.63357 1.00000 8.30447 7.65693 8.35018
simplecall() 38.99476 FAIL 1.32552 1.00000 FAIL
simpleucall() 54.02041 1.00000 3.52439 1.51072 47.91090
simpleudcall
()
52.14534 1.00000 3.75936 1.41614 47.55259
mandel() 21.26249 1.00000 2.03372 2.11208 FAIL
mandel_typ
ed()
23.16553 1.00000 2.11128 2.09212 3.00061
mandel2() 24.43275 1.00000 2.57704 1.87802 FAIL
mandel2_ty
ped()
23.79989 1.00000 2.90105 1.57193 7.11054

58. PHP7, hhvm & co
Recki-ct
php 5.5 Recki-CT hhvm 3.2 hippy-c qb
ary(50000) 1.39338 FAIL 1.00000 4.47888 FAIL
ary2(50000) 1.26952 FAIL 1.00000 2.28231 FAIL
ary3(2000) 5.96015 FAIL 1.70997 1.00000 FAIL
fibo(30) 39.48440 1.00000 1.60647 16.40883 FAIL
hash1(50000) 1.70014 FAIL 1.00000 3.27314 FAIL
hash2(500) 2.23648 FAIL 1.00000 1.30044 FAIL
heapsort(2000
0)
3.67800 FAIL 1.00000 4.96699 FAIL

59. PHP7, hhvm & co
Resources
• http://wiki.php.net/rfc/
• http://zephir-lang.com/
• http://www.slideshare.net/ircmaxell/high-
performance-php-phpnw
• http://talks.php.net/fluent15#/
• https://github.com/google/recki-ct
• http://blog.ircmaxell.com/2014/08/introducing-
recki-ct.html
• https://github.com/chung-
leong/qb/wiki/Introduction

60. PHP7, hhvm & co
Resources
• https://edit.php.net/
• https://wiki.php.net/rfc/phpng
• https://wiki.php.net/rfc/abstract_syntax_tree
• http://hhvm.com/blog/6323/the-journey-of-a-
thousand-bytecodes
• https://github.com/php/php-
src/blob/master/UPGRADING
• https://github.com/php/php-
src/blob/master/UPGRADING.INTERNALS

61. PHP7, hhvm & co
Resources
• http://phpdbg.com/
• http://windows.php.net/qa/
• http://qa.php.net/
• http://ongr.io
• http://aka.ms/AzureCodeManiac2015