Jun 12, 2009, 09:12 by Anonymous
I hadn't really invested any time in figuring out SPL before (not that it was too difficult or anything), but from now on i'm certainly gonna try optimizing my webapps with SPL. Interesting and enlightening talk!
SPL, not a bridge too far
Michelangelo van Dam (Jun 12, 2009)
Talk at Dutch PHP Conference 2009 (English - US)
My proposal for DPC 2009 is a talk about SPL, a truly under-appreciated part of the PHP 5.x core titled "SPL, not a bridge too far".
After a short introduction about SPL and it's categories, I show real world example cases in a "common" way, and their SPL-ized versions afterwards where I emphasize the benefit of choosing SPL for common iterator and stack/queuing challenges.
The whole concept is to show that implementing SPL is not difficult and has enormous benefits on code stability, reusability and portability. With a few benchmark tests I can also showcase the performance gain of applications when using SPL.
Quicklink: http://joind.in/586
Slides: SPL, not a bridge too far
Comments
Jun 12, 2009, 09:14 by mihahribar
The talk was a bit short, but very informative. Didn't know about all the performance gains if you use SPL. Definitely will be using it from now on!
Jun 12, 2009, 09:15 by hvdklauw
Great talk, I've been using SPL for a while now, but clearly not enough yet.
Jun 12, 2009, 09:25 by mattijs
Gave a good introduction if you've never took a good look at SPL. The session was a little short though.
Jun 12, 2009, 09:47 by Anonymous
Good introduction to SPL. A good choice for subject too for my first session of the day. Not too complex subject matter and easily understood, but well worth being highlighted.
The speed gain comparison was a bit weak, for my taste, it would have been almost as easy to show performance gain with some larger objects, but hey, finding out for yourself is just as much fun.
Thanks Michelangelo! and next time, lose the cap :)
Jun 12, 2009, 15:31 by stefan
It was a bit short, but it was an excellent overview of what is in SPL and what it can do. It was a good support for convincing people to start using SPL, or use it more.
Jun 12, 2009, 19:27 by rickmb
Good introduction into SPL, could have done with spending a bit more time on concrete examples the audience can relate to before moving on to the next feature.
I promise I'll start using SPL more (and maybe post examples back to php.net).
Jun 12, 2009, 20:58 by marce!
It was an introduction to SPL, but really short. I would like to see some more real world examples of how to use it. I also would like to see some better benchmark tests to see the real impact for performance.
All in all an interesting topic, but there is much more to it to tell about.
Jun 13, 2009, 13:02 by lifeforms
I don't want to speak badly of the presenter because he did a genuine attempt, but I felt the talk did not really give the necessary insight on the thoughts behind why working with the SPL is "the right way", nor were the examples or benchmarks very good. Seeing that there was a lot of time left at the end, I would suggest for a next presentation to add more examples, for example traversing a directory tree using the RecursiveIteratorIterator in a oneliner, using the interfaces ArrayAccess and Iterator in your own class (so few people know this), building some data structures, and doing real benchmarks (e.g. 100,000 iterations).
Jun 13, 2009, 19:40 by Anonymous
nice introduction, but a bit short and too simple. There could have been better examples, that would show more of the power of SPL (e.g. DirectoryIterator?). It could have been a bit more in-depth and seeing that it was so short, there was plenty of time to do so.
Jun 13, 2009, 19:42 by Anonymous
It's a great entry point for SPL for people who've never heard of it, and the speaker did a good job of making it very understandable.
I do think it would be better to give more examples why and how to use SPL in a more advanced manner, but much of it boiled down to seemingly longer code that was just "better" because it used methods. As the talk ended a bit early, adding some real-life examples of how you can clean up and reduce the amount of code might be a great addition. :)
Jun 13, 2009, 22:03 by Miljar
I have only recently worked with SPL for the first time, and I feel like I should be using it more. This session has proven that even the parts of your code you "take for granted", like array traversing, can affect your performance. Perhaps the examples were not very complex, but it showed us that even the smallest aspects of your code can benefit from using SPL. However, as other attendees have pointed out, since the session was finished quite early, I would have liked to see more advanced usage. Like how your own class can implement for example ArrayAccess or Iterable, and what you can do with it from that point on. But hey, now it got me curious to go figure it out :)
Jun 14, 2009, 12:43 by esnoeijs
A great introduction to what this SPL is all about, but for some reason the room didn't really come alive which hampered the talker who was expecting some more interaction, it got better at the end though. I also would have liked to see some more examples in the sense of how you can use SPL to be more powerful then the old functions.
Jun 15, 2009, 14:28 by arnolambert
I really need to have a closer look at this, sounds very promising.
Jun 17, 2009, 06:54 by alexvandun
Nice introduction into SPL. The speaker is right in saying this part of PHP is under-appreciated. It is not hard to see the various implementations for it. Thanks for a real eyeopener!
Jun 12, 2009, 09:00 by Amazium
I found it an interesting introduction in one of the most underestimated parts of PHP (my humble opinion). I'm looking forward to PHP 5.3 so I can use the splQueue in my next project. It was maybe a bit short though... I would have loved more examples on the 5.3 additions.