13.01.2014 14:58, Pavel Astakhov пишет:
Hi! I would like to discuss an idea.
In MediaWiki is not very convenient to docomputingusing the syntax of
the wiki. We have to use several extensions like Variables, Arrays,
ParserFunctions and others. If there are a lot of computing, such as
data processing received from Semantic MediaWiki, the speed of page
construction becomes unacceptable. To resolve this issue have to do
another extension (eg Semantic Maps displays data from SMW on Maps).
Becomes a lot of these extensions, they don't work well with each
other and these time-consuming to maintain.
I know about the existence of extension Scribunto, but I think that
you can solve this problem by another, more natural way. I suggest
using PHP code in wiki pages, in the same way as it is used for html
files. In this case, extension can be unificated. For example, get the
data from DynamicPageList, if necessary to process, and transmit it to
display other extensions, such as Semantic Result Formats.This will
give users more freedom for creativity.
In order to execute PHP code safely I decided to try to make a
controlled environment. I wrote it in pure PHP, it is lightweight and
in future can be included in the core. It can be viewed as an
extension Foxway. The first version in branch master. It gives an idea
of what it is possible in principle to do and there's even something
like a debugger. It does not work very quickly and I decided to try to
fix it in a branch develop. There I created two classes, Compiler and
Runtime.
The first one processes PHP source code and converts it into a set of
instructions that the class Runtime can execute very quickly. I took a
part of the code from phpunit tests to check the performance. On my
computer, pure PHP executes them on average in 0.0025 seconds, and the
class Runtime in 0.05, it is 20 times slower, but also have the
opportunity to get even better results. I do not take in the
calculation time of class Compiler, because it needs to be used once
when saving a wiki page. Data returned from this class is amenable to
serialize and it can be stored in the database. Also, if all the
dynamic data handle as PHP code, wiki markup can be converted into
html when saving and stored in database. Thus, when requesting a wiki
page from the server it will be not necessary to build it every time
(I know about the cache). Take the already prepared data (for Runtime
and html) and enjoy. Cache is certainly necessary, but only for pages
with dynamic data, and the lifetime of the objects in it can be
greatly reduced since performance will be higher.
I also have other ideas associated with the use of features that
provide this realization. I have already made some steps in this
direction and I think that all of this is realistic and useful.
I'm not saying that foxway ready for use. It shows that this idea can
work and can work fast enough. It needs to be rewritten to make it
easier to maintain, and I believe that it can work even faster.
I did not invent anything new. We all use the html + php. Wiki markup
replaces difficult html and provides security, but what can replace
the scripting language?
I would like to know your opinion: is it really useful or I am wasting
my time?
Best wishes. Pavel Astakhov (pastakhov).
Do not consider Foxway as PHP interpreter.
Consider it as a faster and more powerful alternative to "Magic words".
Why is it faster?
1) Foxway compiles the source code. ("Magic words" does not). Not
important here PHP, LUA or wiki markup. It could be anything. It is
important that the compiled code is executed very quickly. (20 times
slower than pure PHP)
2) Foxway itself does not touch the data to be operated on, they can be
anything. (All data in the "Magic words" only as strings.) It's safe,
because foxway can only transmit the data. All responsibility is only on
extensions that process these data. All built-in functions that process
data, are built-in extensions and can be disabled or replaced by others.
They were integrated for convenience only. Foxway uses function "echo"
to push data to html page. It is pre-disinfected string or data that
gives other extension under their own responsibility (just like "Magic
words").
Why is it more powerful?
1) All extensions can be unified. They will do one thing, but do it
well. Such extensions will be easier to maintain and develop. We all get
a lot of freedom to choose what to use and how. This is the Unix philosophy.
2) Huge number of functions already done, just use them.
3) It should look like script language and it looks like this. "Magic
words" looks very confusing and inconvenient for more use.
Why does foxway understand the syntax of PHP code and not the other,
such as LUA or Python?
Indeed it could understand any syntax, but I chose PHP for several reasons.
1) Mediawiki is written in PHP, and PHP provides the lexical analysis of
the PHP source code and generating tokens.
2) PHP has many useful functions, no better way to give the opportunity
to use them, how not to be like inerpretator PHP.
3) PHP is popular.
4) I like PHP :-)
How does this help to make MediaWiki faster?
1) "Magic words" is a bottleneck.
I propose to replace it with a much faster foxway.
2) Inclusion pages is a bottleneck. We began to use a huge number of
templates. Many of them are used so often that they cause a huge load on
the servers when they are modified.
I suggest using the power foxway to reduce the number of templates and
make them less used.
What do you think about this?
-- Pavel Astakhov
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