Simple, fast and open-source PHP framework frozen in C-extension | Hacker News Reader

Simple, fast and open-source PHP framework frozen in C-extension

iceframework.org

14 pointsmooreds16 comments

> One major drawback for PHP is that on every request, all files are read from the hard drive, translated into bytecode, and then executed.

How old this this framework? Sounds like they never got the news that opcache has been part of PHP since 2013.

Even then, one of the great things with PHP was the shared-nothing architecture. A whole class of bugs simply do not exist when there is no concept of shared memory between requests.

People would be terrified of it now but patching a change by copying a single file over FTP was the norm in the 00s. The change would be picked up on the next request.

Want to roll it back? Just rename `file.php.bak` to `file.php` and you're golden.

It even has a template engine! Because the one thing PHP really needs is a good template engine.

Multiple PHP frameworks have template engines. Symfony and others use Twig. Laravel seems to have one called Blade. Smarty has been around for years.

You might not think its necessary, but clearly a lot of people think it is.

I know, but it's ironic imho

It has Twig, a wonderful and solid template engine.

The name clashes with a similar project that has existed for decades: https://zeroc.com/ice

That one seems to be an RPC framework, whereas the other one is for PHP applications... maybe an unfortunate name clash, but they don't do the same thing nor anything I'd call similar.

Strong CodeIgniter vibes in how the API is presented, which I'm not a fan of.

Unclear how the benchmark was setup but with php-fpm and opcache preload many hundreds of requests per second is my experience with Symfony.

Good news, guys! The maintainer updated the repo fifteen months ago so that the copyright in the license file mentions "2025".

Stuff like this gives me so much FUD. It's cool, but a simple memory management bug means your boring PHP app can have any number of terrible problems: memory leaks, RCE, corruption, you name it. At least with popular, mature C-based software with lots of eyes on it, you can feel a little bit confident that issues have been sussed out. But something like this with probably a small number of production users? Scary!

The page literally says it's not written in C, instead a memory-managed compiled dialect of PHP called Zephir...

And what about Zephir? It has almost no documentation. How can I trust that it's truly safe?

How do you honestly benchmark a framework that only has a documentation of a hello world against laravel which has about everything you can think of...

Seems like a tone-deaf name for a new project in 2026...

This is very far from a new project. The first commit and issues are from 2014.

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