2007/12/4, Michael McGlothlin <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>: > > The need to pack a program all into a single source file for performance > reasons would seem to indicate that the way PHP compiles/interprets > could be improved. Wouldn't it be better to improve this area than add > language features to deal with the issue? >
Actually, it's an expected tradeoff of interpreted languages. Compilable languages have both a compiler and a linker that bundles everything in one executable. By using bytecode caching and bundling you're just getting closer to the performance expectations of a compilable language. But bundling is not as easy as it seems, and its complexity is proportionally inverse to the complexity of the language. As much as you can try to improve this area, you can't do much without resorting to hacks and workarounds. An option is becoming a managed-code language such as Java or the .Net family.
