Learn about the workings of the Zend Engine
Over at his blog, Abhinav Singh shows how to use the following extensions to learn more about the internal working of the Zend Engine which powers PHP:
- Tokenizer: The tokenizer functions provide an interface to the PHP tokenizer embedded in the Zend Engine. Using these functions you may write your own PHP source analyzing or modification tools without having to deal with the language specification at the lexical level.
- Parsekit: These parsekit functions allow runtime analysis of opcodes compiled from PHP scripts.
- Vulcan Logic Disassembler (vld): Provides functionality to dump the internal representation of PHP scripts.
He goes on to show how to use these extensions using a sample PHP file and PHP through command line to show what happens when you invoke a script in PHP. Head over to his article to read more.
Link: PHP tokens and opcodes : 3 useful extensions for understanding the working of Zend Engine
