CODEWITHSUNDEEP
php
Toma Tomov
Toma Tomov

Reputation: 1652

PHP Zend engine compile the code or interpreters it

As per wikipedia:

Scripts are loaded into memory and compiled into Zend opcodes

One line below is said:

The interpreter part analyzes the input code, translates it, and executes it.

As I know the code is loaded in the memory, then goes through lexical analyze, getting parsed and compiled to opcodes. I fall in total mess even after ton of articles about the engine. So in the end is PHP code compiled or interpretered?

Upvotes: 2

Views: 805

Answers (2)

IMSoP
IMSoP

Reputation: 97708

I think the distinction between "compiling" and "interpreting" is less clear in practice than Computer Science lessons would imply, as is the distinction between a "runtime environment" and a "virtual machine".

The answer is essentially that it is both: the Zend Engine first compiles your PHP code to an intermediate representation called "opcodes"; it then interprets these opcodes to execute the code.

In some ways, this is similar to the way Java is first compiled to bytecode, and then executed on the Java Virtual Machine; however, the "VM" which executes the code in the Zend Engine is not defined like a real processor, and is closely tied to the PHP language. It therefore acts more like a traditional interpreter, but of a language that no human would write.

Upvotes: 6

maio290
maio290

Reputation: 6732

The Zend Engine is responsible for the following tasks in PHP:

High performance parsing (including syntax checking), in-memory compilation and execution of PHP scripts [..]

Source: http://www.zend.com/products/zend_engine/in_depth

Upvotes: 0

Related Questions