Phalanger - the PHP Language Compiler for .NET Framework

Phalanger - the PHP Language Compiler for .NET Framework

The Phalanger is a complex solution giving web-application developers the ability to benefit from both the ease-of-use and effectiveness of the PHP language and the power and richness of the .NET platform. This solution enables developers to painlessly deploy and run existing PHP code on an ASP.NET web server and develop cross-platform extensions to such code taking profit from the best from both sides. Compatible with PHP 5.0, the object model in Phalanger enables to combine PHP objects with the .NET ones. It is possible to use a class written in PHP from a .NET application or even to import a .NET class (written for example in C# or Visual Basic .NET) into PHP scripts provided that this class respects the PHP object model implemented in the Phalanger. The Phalanger is the only existing PHP compiler which produces .NET Framework MSIL bytecode.

From another point of view, Phalanger provides the .NET programmers with the giant amount of practical PHP functions and data structures - many of them reimplemented in the managed environment of the .NET Framework. The whole Phalanger class library (including functions implemented in the PHP extensions) is accessible to a .NET programmer regardless to her favorite programming language together with type information and in-library debugging.

For last but not the least, compilation of PHP scripts gives yet more power to the existing web applications in the Phalanger environment. All the static (run-time immutable) code in the scripts gets parsed and compiled only once and all following accesses to a page benefit from the unleashed execution of the native compilation of the script. Yet the usage of Phalanger is not limited to web applications. The compiler supports output of standalone executables or dynamic link libraries enabling you to create managed PHP console applications or library modules reusable from any other .NET Framework application.

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Take a look at their interview at Channel 9
Phalanger: PHP .NET compiler revealed #