5 ms·

Wouldn't it have been easier to have moved away from PHP? From what I understand, Facebook only uses PHP for the most front of ends. Business logic is all in ot

Wouldn't it have been easier to have moved away from PHP? From what I understand, Facebook only uses PHP for the most front of ends. Business logic is all in other languages. Isn't it easy to port the front-end into something else?

olalonde 17y ago
What other languages? (genuine question)
- Zev 17y ago
  Erlang, C++, Java, Python and possibly others that I can't quite remember. See http://www.infoq.com/presentations/Facebook-Software-Stack http://www.infoq.com/presentations/Facebook-Software-Stack for actual details.
  - deleted 17y ago
    [deleted]
- adrianwaj 17y ago
  Reddit was rewritten from Lisp to Python: http://www.aaronsw.com/weblog/rewritingreddit http://www.aaronsw.com/weblog/rewritingreddit Twitter from Ruby into Scala and JVM: http://www.artima.com/scalazine/articles/twitter_on_scala.html http://www.artima.com/scalazine/articles/twitter_on_scala.ht... I think there are two aspects of a language (correct me if I am wrong) -- it's elegance/simplicity/breadth of code produced by programmers that write with it --- and then the efficiency/effectiveness/HW-optimized executable code produced by its compiler once it's run: so how does PHP and Facebook fit in with all this?
  - munctional 17y ago
    Twitter's frontend is still definitely Ruby (on Rails). Based on what I've heard from people who have consulted there, it's a gigantic ball of crap. They've so heavily patched Rails 2.0 that they can't realistically migrate to a more modern version of Rails.
    - BerislavLopac 17y ago
      Which is sorta ridiculous considering that it's definitely not among the most complex of the Web apps out there. Even late competitors like www.shoutem.com are much more complex as they allow for a bunch of Twitters to be created on the same platform. The only complex thing about Twitter is its size, and I bet their developers are working round the clock just to keep it from falling apart.
    - rufugee 17y ago
      I do a fair amount of Rails, so I'm really curious here. How could it be that they've so heavily patched 2.0 that they can't move on? Anyone from Twitter care to comment? I've worked on many Rails apps, and have upgraded the apps from version to version. It's a pain when key elements of the API shift, but it's not that bad...even when the project has monkey-patched Rails a lot. And twitter certainly has the resources to afford to dedicate a few programmers to this task, so I'm just not sure I buy it.
      - munctional 17y ago
        One of the contractors I spoke with said that they had a branch running Rails 2.1 successfully. When they deployed it in production, the entire application fell on its face. Supposedly, the problem was caused by Cache Money, but nobody at Twitter wanted to risk moving to a different version again. They're still on 2.0 today. :-) Another fun fact: Twitter has over 1,500 remote git branches. They also have bright green deer in the reception area of their office. :-)
  - leej 17y ago
    FB is on a much different scale so it'll be out of question for short term but I wonder if they have looked at Quercus.
dylanz 17y ago
Yeah, I had the same question. The PHP syntax definitely puts me off. That said, it's just the front-end. Might as well keep on keepin' on with what you're using, and since it's open source, just rewrite the thing. Deep down inside I wish they were using ERB (or HAML) however, and he was writing HERB (or HHAML). I'm still enamored with Ruby syntax, and wish it would get some more big business love.
indigoviolet 17y ago
No.
- varaon 17y ago
  Note: This user has worked for Facebook for two years.
  - indigoviolet 17y ago
    I guess I should probably clarify what I meant by the "No." above: Facebook has a large, well-tested codebase, with a huge amount of infrastructure built on and to support PHP. It would be ridiculous to expect Facebook to migrate all of this to a different language. Re: the article itself, you'll have to wait until Tuesday.

olalonde 17y ago

What other languages? (genuine question)

Zev 17y ago
Erlang, C++, Java, Python and possibly others that I can't quite remember. See http://www.infoq.com/presentations/Facebook-Software-Stack http://www.infoq.com/presentations/Facebook-Software-Stack for actual details.
- deleted 17y ago
  [deleted]
adrianwaj 17y ago
Reddit was rewritten from Lisp to Python: http://www.aaronsw.com/weblog/rewritingreddit http://www.aaronsw.com/weblog/rewritingreddit Twitter from Ruby into Scala and JVM: http://www.artima.com/scalazine/articles/twitter_on_scala.html http://www.artima.com/scalazine/articles/twitter_on_scala.ht... I think there are two aspects of a language (correct me if I am wrong) -- it's elegance/simplicity/breadth of code produced by programmers that write with it --- and then the efficiency/effectiveness/HW-optimized executable code produced by its compiler once it's run: so how does PHP and Facebook fit in with all this?
- munctional 17y ago
  Twitter's frontend is still definitely Ruby (on Rails). Based on what I've heard from people who have consulted there, it's a gigantic ball of crap. They've so heavily patched Rails 2.0 that they can't realistically migrate to a more modern version of Rails.
  - BerislavLopac 17y ago
    Which is sorta ridiculous considering that it's definitely not among the most complex of the Web apps out there. Even late competitors like www.shoutem.com are much more complex as they allow for a bunch of Twitters to be created on the same platform. The only complex thing about Twitter is its size, and I bet their developers are working round the clock just to keep it from falling apart.
  - rufugee 17y ago
    I do a fair amount of Rails, so I'm really curious here. How could it be that they've so heavily patched 2.0 that they can't move on? Anyone from Twitter care to comment? I've worked on many Rails apps, and have upgraded the apps from version to version. It's a pain when key elements of the API shift, but it's not that bad...even when the project has monkey-patched Rails a lot. And twitter certainly has the resources to afford to dedicate a few programmers to this task, so I'm just not sure I buy it.
    - munctional 17y ago
      One of the contractors I spoke with said that they had a branch running Rails 2.1 successfully. When they deployed it in production, the entire application fell on its face. Supposedly, the problem was caused by Cache Money, but nobody at Twitter wanted to risk moving to a different version again. They're still on 2.0 today. :-) Another fun fact: Twitter has over 1,500 remote git branches. They also have bright green deer in the reception area of their office. :-)
- leej 17y ago
  FB is on a much different scale so it'll be out of question for short term but I wonder if they have looked at Quercus.

dylanz 17y ago

Yeah, I had the same question. The PHP syntax definitely puts me off. That said, it's just the front-end. Might as well keep on keepin' on with what you're using, and since it's open source, just rewrite the thing. Deep down inside I wish they were using ERB (or HAML) however, and he was writing HERB (or HHAML). I'm still enamored with Ruby syntax, and wish it would get some more big business love.

indigoviolet 17y ago

No.

varaon 17y ago
Note: This user has worked for Facebook for two years.
- indigoviolet 17y ago
  I guess I should probably clarify what I meant by the "No." above: Facebook has a large, well-tested codebase, with a huge amount of infrastructure built on and to support PHP. It would be ridiculous to expect Facebook to migrate all of this to a different language. Re: the article itself, you'll have to wait until Tuesday.