Extending PHP with Preloading & FFI
The core of PHP’s standard library comes from its collection of “glue” extensions. Add-ons to PHP who’s only job is to connect the runtime with a common C-library which does all the real work. PHP 7.4 will bring us a whole new way to create these kinds of simple glue wrappers without requiring any knowledge of C or build tools.
This session brings the first introduction of FFI, or Foreign Function Interface, an incredibly powerful yet simple to use bridge between PHP and external libraries.