Neat idea. I'm far more curious about seeing projects like this implemented on the Graal/Truffle tools when they're closer to ready. However, I'd be surprised

Neat idea. I'm far more curious about seeing projects like this implemented on the Graal/Truffle tools when they're closer to ready. However, I'd be surprised to see this in the wild. There are a bajillion choices today about ways to do web scripting, and IMO PHP is only an advantage if it's really convenient or if you have an existing codebase written in it. The only reason I've ever considered using PHP (or ever seen it used) is because it's conveniently already installed and configured on a server that needs to be used. If you have to set up a new toolchain or server to use it, then why wouldn't you just use a "better" language? If you have an existing project in PHP, and if you all of a sudden need performance or a desktop GUI, wouldn't your time be better spent porting it to a more performant/robust language, rather than adapting it to a new and unproven PHP runtime?