converting php to assembly/machine [closed]

Question

i heard someone say that the purpose of scripting languages it to abastract out the low-level stuff...also if you look at how sites are developed you see that when sites want efficiency they switch from php to C++, C# or similar.

PHP is written in C. C compiles to assembly/machine code...so theoretically you should be able to think of PHP in terms of assembly if you knew how. Is there a way to view the assembly for PHP or does this go against the design pupose of a scripting language?

To say you have an advanced command of the language should you be able to view it in terms of assembly?

I have a general understanding of PHP class design on the high level but how low-level should one go with out "going against the design of the languge".

If there is a line where is it drawn? How do I convert php to assembly?

I'm asking the question b.c. I want to have an advanced knowledge of the language and I need to know if this would be a requirement.

For example, you could look up the php call in C. From there you could use gcc tools to view that assembly...but does anyone do this?

Answer 1

Yes, it is possible to convert PHP to assembly. Facebook was/is written in PHP. As Facebook grew, scale and performance became an issue, and so they created HipHop for PHP.

HipHop is a source code transformer which transforms PHP source code into highly optimized C++ and then compiles it using g++. Currently supported platforms are Linux and FreeBSD. There is no OS X support. (Source)