I know this was asked about a year and a half ago, but there was never a reply...
For the Netburner staff... Is there a plan in the roadmap anywhere to support php on the Netburner? There are so many other cool things that could be done to make sites more dynamic if it was allowed. Of course I'm not sure whether the hardware could handle all of the extra overhead.
Just thought I'd ask.
Thanks!
PHP?
Re: PHP?
To begin: I understand why you're asking this. You're looking for a way to create better applications, faster. That said, discussions of programming languages are almost as fraught with disaster as discussions of text editors. I make no judgement on the choice of language being asked ; if you'd like, replace 'PHP' with 'Haskell' or 'Effiel' below (Yes, those are programming languages). A fair bit of the reasoning here is my opinion, but the end decision is not. Now, as for whether or not there is a plan to support PHP in the Netburner environment...
There is not. PHP is a very complex language with a fairly large runtime which would make porting it challenging to say the least. Furthermore, I doubt that porting the language itself would provide much utility, as the only real value that PHP offers is the shear volume of libraries and frameworks built for it, and I'd be very doubtful that those would work with a minimally ported implementation.
Finally, on Programming Language level, I present this: PHP: a fractal of bad design. I do understand why you want to have an additional, higher level language to use, but to be honest, I'd be very doubtful on ever seeing PHP chosen. Python? maybe, I'd love to have it, but it's unfortunately a) large, b) relatively slow, and c) RAM intensive (minimum 4-8 MB per runtime). Perl? again, maybe, but it's a) large and b) generally requires being compiled.
In short, the effort to port PHP to the Netburner environment is large for a language that is mediocre and whose performance in the environment is questionable. This leads to the conclusion that it is best to spend our efforts on developing other areas to better serve the broadest base of our customers in the best manner possible. I'm sorry that we haven't/won't be going down a road that you appear to desire, but that's the reality of it. :/
We do have a version of Lua (version 5.10, if memory serves correctly) ported and available for scripting support. It has the significant advantage of being a) small (in RAM and flash, both < 200k) and b) fast. It can also call native C functions with a very minimal overhead (roughly one operation per argument).
-Dan
There is not. PHP is a very complex language with a fairly large runtime which would make porting it challenging to say the least. Furthermore, I doubt that porting the language itself would provide much utility, as the only real value that PHP offers is the shear volume of libraries and frameworks built for it, and I'd be very doubtful that those would work with a minimally ported implementation.
Finally, on Programming Language level, I present this: PHP: a fractal of bad design. I do understand why you want to have an additional, higher level language to use, but to be honest, I'd be very doubtful on ever seeing PHP chosen. Python? maybe, I'd love to have it, but it's unfortunately a) large, b) relatively slow, and c) RAM intensive (minimum 4-8 MB per runtime). Perl? again, maybe, but it's a) large and b) generally requires being compiled.
In short, the effort to port PHP to the Netburner environment is large for a language that is mediocre and whose performance in the environment is questionable. This leads to the conclusion that it is best to spend our efforts on developing other areas to better serve the broadest base of our customers in the best manner possible. I'm sorry that we haven't/won't be going down a road that you appear to desire, but that's the reality of it. :/
We do have a version of Lua (version 5.10, if memory serves correctly) ported and available for scripting support. It has the significant advantage of being a) small (in RAM and flash, both < 200k) and b) fast. It can also call native C functions with a very minimal overhead (roughly one operation per argument).
-Dan
Dan Ciliske
Project Engineer
Netburner, Inc
Project Engineer
Netburner, Inc
-
terry_opie
- Posts: 27
- Joined: Tue Jul 30, 2013 8:33 am
Re: PHP?
Dan,
That's exactly what I was looking for. I understand the downfalls of PHP, and just about any other higher level language used on the web. Its not that I desire PHP, but it gives me more flexibility than I currently have with static HTML files. I know that javascript gives some extra functionality, but it like everything has its limitations. It never hurts to have another tool in the toolbox. Which is why I asked about PHP...
I am however intrigued by the Lua port that is available. Is there any documentation on it somewhere that I could read through? I've only dabbled with Lua, but from what I have read, and if there is support for it, it would serve for what I was thinking I would use PHP for.
Thanks!
That's exactly what I was looking for. I understand the downfalls of PHP, and just about any other higher level language used on the web. Its not that I desire PHP, but it gives me more flexibility than I currently have with static HTML files. I know that javascript gives some extra functionality, but it like everything has its limitations. It never hurts to have another tool in the toolbox. Which is why I asked about PHP...
I am however intrigued by the Lua port that is available. Is there any documentation on it somewhere that I could read through? I've only dabbled with Lua, but from what I have read, and if there is support for it, it would serve for what I was thinking I would use PHP for.
Thanks!
Re: PHP?
Terry,
I haven't touched any of the Netburner products in long time. The last time I played around with one I did some work with the Angelscript language on a Netburner MOD54514??? board. The code and some screen shots are contained in the following post:
http://forum.embeddedethernet.com/viewt ... f=5&t=1448
The example is a web page with a built in code editor to dynamically modify the scripts executing on the host. The performance was fairly good for many applications. A wiki article with more details on how to get started can be found here:
http://wiki.embeddedethernet.com/AngelScript
Angelscript is based on the C/C++ syntax. I've always liked that feature of Angelscript since I was the one writing the scripts anyways.
Cheers,
Tony
I haven't touched any of the Netburner products in long time. The last time I played around with one I did some work with the Angelscript language on a Netburner MOD54514??? board. The code and some screen shots are contained in the following post:
http://forum.embeddedethernet.com/viewt ... f=5&t=1448
The example is a web page with a built in code editor to dynamically modify the scripts executing on the host. The performance was fairly good for many applications. A wiki article with more details on how to get started can be found here:
http://wiki.embeddedethernet.com/AngelScript
Angelscript is based on the C/C++ syntax. I've always liked that feature of Angelscript since I was the one writing the scripts anyways.
Cheers,
Tony
Re: PHP?
There is a new microcontroller version of Python being developed as a Kickstarter project. The author has it running on a small ARM chip. The intention is to release the code as an open source project on github. I'm sure that it could be ported to the Netburner boards fairly easily. Take a look here http://micropython.org/