Is there any way to interface PHP and asm?

resetreset · 01-02-2012, 08:27 AM

I'm trying to add Searching to my website, and I'm really ITCHING to write the searching stuff in asm. Is there any way to interface between PHP and asm, short of just making an EXE and redirecting between them using > and < .

To add to the problem, my hosts have 64 bit servers and I don't know 64-bit asm!

(( (but that's another topic).

I think I don't really know what I'm asking, but if YOU have experience, maybe you'll get it. Just my pore confused brain at work!

kbp · 01-02-2012, 03:37 PM

When you write stuff in asm it compiles to a OS specific binary (elf,pe.. etc), you don't interface directly with "asm" as such. A PHP file is a script which is compiled at runtime by the php interpreter, you may want to read up on the difference between compiled and interpreted languages. There's a good asm intro here which should help but you'll need to download the videos.

resetreset · 01-03-2012, 12:40 AM

I have been programming since '87 kbp, I know what you said. To make it clearer, what I was looking for is a way to do "inline asm", like you can do in C. Is that at all possible?

Cedrik · 01-03-2012, 04:59 AM

All is possible, you could compile asm on the fly by executing shell commands to compile asm code in the php page (assuming building tools are available in the server), but what would be the point

I would rather compile asm code once and use it as CGI program, but frankly for a search engine I don't know if there is any advantage to use asm

resetreset · 01-03-2012, 10:07 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Cedrik

All is possible, you could compile asm on the fly by executing shell commands to compile asm code in the php page (assuming building tools are available in the server), but what would be the point

I would rather compile asm code once and use it as CGI program, but frankly for a search engine I don't know if there is any advantage to use asm

What kind of shell commands? Could you be a bit clearer?

Sergei Steshenko · 01-03-2012, 11:15 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by resetreset

... I'm really ITCHING to write the searching stuff in asm. ...

Why ? That is, can you prove that whatever string matching library you use is slow because it is written in "C" and not in assembly ?

Or maybe you are using an algorithmically inefficient library ?

anomie · 01-03-2012, 03:41 PM

@resetrest: If you're willing to call your compiled program from a PHP script, see documentation for the following functions -

system()
exec()
shell_exec() (identical to backtick operator)

resetreset · 01-04-2012, 01:10 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sergei Steshenko

Why ? That is, can you prove that whatever string matching library you use is slow because it is written in "C" and not in assembly ?

Or maybe you are using an algorithmically inefficient library ?

I don't even know OF any libraries, good or bad. I'm doing it because I LIKE programming. Asm is my first love, and I haven't touched it in along time (as may be evident from the fact that I don't know 64-bit

), so - just wanted to do what my heart dictates

frieza · 01-04-2012, 03:07 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by anomie

@resetrest: If you're willing to call your compiled program from a PHP script, see documentation for the following functions -

system()
exec()
shell_exec() (identical to backtick operator)

something like this might work, or if your servers allow CGI, write the search parts as cgi scripts that provide machine parsable output and call them using curl to pass the information to them and read the output into a string, then write a snippet to parse and format the output.

as for putting the ASM code inline? php is an interpreted language and as far as i know doesn't have facilites to do such implemented.

Sergei Steshenko · 01-04-2012, 05:34 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by resetreset

... just wanted to do what my heart dictates

Then read http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Million_Roses and look up the song on YouTube or wherever. The song is about a poor artist/painter who sold all his possessions and bought 1e6 scarlet roses to give them to the woman he loved.

sundialsvcs · 01-04-2012, 06:24 AM

If that is what your heart dictates, then prepare to be heartbroken.

The only way to do it is to modify the PHP executable itself. Which, of course, you can do, by recompiling it. (But why?)

ntubski · 01-04-2012, 08:07 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by sundialsvcs

The only way to do it is to modify the PHP executable itself.

It seems there is a function to load a PHP extension from a shared library, you could write the shared library in assembler.

resetreset · 01-04-2012, 09:39 AM

heh sorry guys, I don't have any formal comp sci training about compiler theory or whatever, and writing a PHP *extension* would be outside my abilities. and of course, I'd have to study for a couple of years to find out all about PHP's innards. no, can't do.
just wanted to know if *someone's* done it.

ntubski, hugs and kisses for that info. haven't been to the page yet, but will

resetreset · 01-05-2012, 09:29 AM

OK, so.... have to bend... Sergei, - could you tell me some libraries please?

Thx.

Sergei Steshenko · 01-05-2012, 10:39 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by resetreset

OK, so.... have to bend... Sergei, - could you tell me some libraries please?

Thx.

Through a web search engine - enter

string matching library
.

And/or start from here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pattern_matching
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regular_expression
.

The first thing to try is PCRE: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PCRE . And/or to "cannibalize" the library from Perl itself - it's AFAIK is faster. But both are not the fastest - I know people have written their own faster libraries in "C" - I am talking about a person who did this for work, so his library is not publicly available.