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Ask HN: What language(s) is Facebook written in?
Facebook was originally written in PHP. What technologies is it using now?
I had someone tell me that they were moving from python/django to php because 1. it's easier to find PHP devs and 2. it's good enough for facebook. Is it?
- japherwocky 16y agoIt's always been written in PHP, and they released a compiler for the language that they developed in house: http://www.insidefacebook.com/2010/02/02/facebook-open-sources-hiphop-php-compiler-software/ http://www.insidefacebook.com/2010/02/02/facebook-open-sourc...
- zalew 16y agoand MySQL http://www.facebook.com/MySQLatFacebook http://www.facebook.com/MySQLatFacebook http://blog.facebook.com/blog.php?post=7899307130 http://blog.facebook.com/blog.php?post=7899307130 More interesting are how they use technologies rather than only which one, f.ex this: http://www.allfacebook.com/2010/02/facebook-makes-their-web-pages-faster/ http://www.allfacebook.com/2010/02/facebook-makes-their-web-...
- badave 16y agoDon't forget about Cassandra, which they developed just for scalability issues that they were having, and is now used at Digg and other sites (I think reddit uses it for something as well now) http://www.facebook.com/note.php?note_id=24413138919 http://www.facebook.com/note.php?note_id=24413138919
- pinchyfingers 16y agoReally?! They developed Hip Hop to transform PHP into C++, so I'd bet they are firmly dedicated to PHP, and I really doubt that Facebook has any problems finding developers. PHP/C++, Cassandra, JavaScript, Flash, and whatever third party developers choose to use as long as they use the Facebook API. I don't actually know, maybe someone else will give you some more insight, but I'm pretty confident about the PHP part.
- waterlesscloud 16y agoIsn't the chat subsystem in Erlang?
- aitoehigie 16y agoyes it is
- stratospark 16y agoThere are some good slides about this: http://www.erlang-factory.com/conference/SFBayAreaErlangFactory2009/speakers/EugeneLetuchy http://www.erlang-factory.com/conference/SFBayAreaErlangFact...
- stratospark 16y agoFacebook developed the Thrift API to facilitate cross-language services: http://incubator.apache.org/thrift/ http://incubator.apache.org/thrift/ I imagine they could use anything as long as it consumes Thrift. The extent to which they do that is a question.
- jchonphoenix 16y agoFrom people on the inside. Its written in PHP mainly. It has Java, C++, C, Haskell, Erlang, Python, Perl, OCaml and some others littered throughout the site.
- smarterch1ld 16y agoIt's easier to find PHP devs. Facebook is written in PHP. They crossed the point where switching made any sense a long time ago. This has absolutely nothing to with what you should use.
- drallison 16y agoTake a look at the EE380 video for May 5, 2010 at http://ee380.stanford.edu http://ee380.stanford.edu. Haiping Zhao from Facebook describes the HipHop Compiler for PHP: Transforming PHP into C++.