Climbing the Abstract Syntax Tree

on YouTube ↗54m

" summary

AST introduced in PHP 7 becomes an explicit intermediate data structure that decouples parser and compiler, yielding about 10–15% faster compilation at the cost of higher memory use. Concrete tools demonstrated include php‑ast extension (native, exposes AST), PHP-Parser (userland parser, convenient but slow). Examples built: a tiny lexer/parser/compiler for arithmetic, a class monkey‑patching loader using BetterReflection, and notes on Phan/Exakat static analysis; native AST works and enables real tooling.

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" chapters (6)

1. 0:00Start
2. 0:04Climbing the Abstract Syntax Tree
3. 29:06Parsing the tokens
4. 34:09Executing the AST
5. 36:40What does this mean for me?
6. 44:01Better Reflection

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