Jenk wrote:Why didn't they do it in the open? They've basically said "This is how we think PHP should be, so here it is." and are now plugging their speed increase in a "HEY GUYS, COME USE OUR PHP INSTEAD!" kind of way, by the looks of it.
First, you are assuming that they knew exactly what they were going to implement when they started. Since they say the software is essentially a Beta and needs much more work, it sounds like they got it to a workable proof of concept (i.e., some part of Facebook can use it) and then released it. Honestly, I have less of a problem with this than the other Facebook libraries which are designed to bring more people and money to Facebook. That is the Microsoft way ... only release things that connect to your software and make you more money. I don't see how opensourcing HipHop makes Facebook a dime. It just potentially makes PHP more powerful. Imagine if the PHP Group figures out a way to integrate it into PHP so you can seamlessly run interpreted or compiled? Or it gets built into APC or something like that? The point of opensource is that people create a solution to their problem and release it, then others can take the software places the original developers weren't interested in or didn't think of.
Jenk wrote:What they should have done was make their intentions known, and then allow some form of input from the community. Not take from a community driven project, hide away, and then unleash a largely unknown and unfamiliar, yet "better" version onto the same community. At least for the beginning it will make anyone who uses this compiler dependent upon the FB devs for support/guidance/etc. Until someone finds a glaring hole, most probably.
Your attitude is that they have taken from rather than have added to a PHP? They don't say it is better. In fact the clearly state the limitations in what they implemented. Yet it is not good enough that they did a good thing by opensourcing it ... you add a "What they should have done" caveat.
Jenk wrote:That is the "dirty takeover". The spotlight has shifted from the PHP team to Facebook, who will no doubt be wearing the "I'm the PHP Daddy" T-shirt.
I think if you had written HipHop in private over the last year -- and opensourced it -- I would buy you that T-Shirt and called you "PHP Daddy".
PS - the consensus in the blogs seems to be that HipHop is not very useful currently except for a very few types of sites, but that perhaps it could be expanded into a more generally useful system. It is PHP 5.2 not 5.3, so work needs to be done to upgrade it. It only supports the extension that Facebook uses, so more work is needed. And it does not support the full language (eval() is mentioned as one thing not supported) so yet again more work.