#26 - Low Level PHP
June 01, 2025
17:06
There is renewed interest in PHP's low level roots.
The low-level root of PHP is the language it is written in: C.
This renewed interest includes:
• compiling PHP feature code with the PHP interpreter, into one executable binary
• speeding up code execution by way of the C language's process forks.
This all has direct relevance to PHP serverless. Which has heightened my desire to understand C.
FrankenPHP is now under the auspices of the PHP Foundation. This has further heightened my desire to understand the low level underpinings of PHP.
In this episode, I
• look at this mini-trend
• outline what it means to be a low level programming language
• take a quick look at random access memory
All this as a prelude to a special mid-month episode going over low level concepts in C in a classic textbook.
The low-level root of PHP is the language it is written in: C.
This renewed interest includes:
• compiling PHP feature code with the PHP interpreter, into one executable binary
• speeding up code execution by way of the C language's process forks.
This all has direct relevance to PHP serverless. Which has heightened my desire to understand C.
FrankenPHP is now under the auspices of the PHP Foundation. This has further heightened my desire to understand the low level underpinings of PHP.
In this episode, I
• look at this mini-trend
• outline what it means to be a low level programming language
• take a quick look at random access memory
All this as a prelude to a special mid-month episode going over low level concepts in C in a classic textbook.
Links:
- Book: Advanced Programming in the UNIX® Environment
- FrankenPHP: PHP Apps As Standalone Binaries
- GitHub: PHP Hacker package
- GitHub: static-php-cli package
- Laravel Framework: Concurrency Illuminate package
- PHP Foundation: FrankenPHP Is Now Officially Supported by The PHP Foundation
- Serverless Chats Podcast #132: The Evolution of Serverless at AWS with Dr. Werner Vogels
Attributions
Beethoven's Symphony No. 1, Op.21:
- Creative Commons Attribution 4.0
- https://imslp.org/wiki/Symphony_No.1,_Op.21_(Beethoven,_Ludwig_van)
Beethoven's Symphony No.9, Op.125: