Summary

In this chapter, you learned not only how the new JIT compiler works, but you gained an understanding of the traditional PHP interpret-compile-execute cycle. Using PHP 8 and enabling the JIT compiler has the potential to speed up your PHP application anywhere from three times faster and up.

In the next section, you learned what a stable sort is, and how PHP 8 implements this vital technology. By mastering the stable sort, your code will produce data in a rational manner, resulting in greater customer satisfaction.

The section following introduced you to a technique that can vastly improve performance and reduce memory consumption by taking advantage of the SplFixedArray class. After that, you learned about PHP 8 support for weak references as well as the new WeakMap class. Using the techniques covered in this chapter will cause your applications to execute much quicker, run more efficiently, and use less memory.

In the next chapter, you'll learn how to perform...