Hi everyone. Just wanted to follow up on this. Is there any chance of switch_global_context making it into PHP 9? This would be a huge game-changer as e.g. FrankenPHP in worker mode could literally be up to 100x faster than PHP-FPM! But right now, most frameworks which benefit from the awesome shared-nothing architecture (using static Foo::$bar, superglobals, PDO, etc.) are stuck, and need a complete rewrite. With this, they wouldn't.
I understand that switch_global_context() might have a bit of trouble with database pools or whatnot (since some connections wouldn't be released) and therefore would actually end up making a process block until the connections are available. This may be tricky. But the goal of porting all existing PHP code to take advantage of worker mode is extremely worth it, even if some threads end up blocked temporarily it's still strictly faster and better than PHP-FPM and FrankenPHP classic mode. Sincerely, Greg Magarshak <https://76183cf5.streaklinks.com/CkyAlxNdnd52rqGCJwHgpr1X/http%3A%2F%2Fqbix.com%2Finvest> On Tue, Jul 29, 2025 at 1:46 PM Gregory Magarshak <g...@qbix.com> wrote: > I came across this post on Reddit asking what people would like to see in > the next PHP: https://www.reddit.com/r/PHP/s/l9r8UJP6Rk > > There are two major proposals I would make, both of which aim to greatly > improve PHP's competitiveness and ecosystem, while maintaining its spirit > and what makes it great. And one minor proposal. I wrote them on Reddit, > but then I realized I should actually do something about it. The last time > I did something was in 2015 writing to the PHP list back then. > > How do I get rights to create my own RFCs for these? I tried to do it on > the web, but it says to ask on the mailing list. Here are my bona fides: > I've spent about 20 years with PHP, to be honest, and the last 14 building > an open-source community platform / CMS that competes with Facebook, > Twitter, etc. and uses very idiomatic PHP. Here are two links in case > anyone is interested > https://github.com/Qbix > https://www.laweekly.com/restoring-healthy-communities/ > > Anyway without further ado, I would like to present the two proposals: > > First one: introduce switch_global_context($name) > ============ > > I really love PHP’s shared-nothing architecture, but when it comes to > frankenphp, swoole etc. it is very hard to port existing apps to that > evented runtime. That is mainly because the superglobals and static > variables are — well — global. You can have the best of both worlds. > > Just add a function to PHP which can do context switching between all > global scopes, to any named scope. So when you have one evented runtime, it > can quickly switch. This should be easy to do with SHM (shared memory > segments) and just pointing to a different page in memory. > > The goal is to allow all “legacy” code (ie all current PHP code that runs > on php-fpm etc) to be trivially ported to much faster runtimes, while > remaining “shared-nothing” for all intents and purposes (global contexts > would be isolated from one another because only one could be active at a > time). > > Second one: set_encryption_seed($name) > > You might need to let people register functions to run before a context is > saved (sleep) and after it is loaded (wakeup), when there is memory > pressure, PHP can handle this in a standard way and even encrypt it at > rest. You can also do this for session save/open handlers (which you > already do). > > Just have an environment variable or function like > set_encryption_seed($seed) at startup of frankenphp or swoole. > > Third one one: Improve func_get_args to return associative arrays. > =================== > > I had this suggestion back in 2015 but maybe now it’s outdated. You see, > functions typically start out having required arguments first, then add on > optional arguments later. I thought based on how PHP passes arguments, it > would have been trivial to enhance func_get_args to return an array indexed > not just by numeric values but also string values! > > And therefore one could pass arguments like in python: func(2, 5, $foo => > $bar, $baz => $choo) It also would look exactly like the familiar array > composition syntax. But this is no mere syntactic sugar. It helps > developers fall into the pit of success by creating backward-compatible > interfaces and making any function extensible, improving the entire > ecosystem. > > Sincerely, > Greg Magarshak > > <https://76183cf5.streaklinks.com/ChUGGA0vb2UyLmRu_AoCdl6f/http%3A%2F%2Fqbix.com%2Finvest> > > ᐧ > ᐧ > ᐧ
