Comments on: Twitter to Bite the PHP Bullet? http://www.webdevelopment2.com/twitter-bite-php-bullet/ Quick and Dirty Web Development for Web 2.0: CakePHP, Prototype, JQuery, and lots more. Thu, 20 Oct 2011 05:21:31 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0.1 By: Colleen http://www.webdevelopment2.com/twitter-bite-php-bullet/comment-page-1/#comment-27501 Colleen Tue, 13 May 2008 07:11:40 +0000 http://www.webdevelopment2.com/?p=308#comment-27501 I just heard that the rumor twitter is abandoning rails is false. The real truth I was told is that twitter is partly on the rails platform and partly just in pure ruby. and the commentator ahead of me is right. It's probably really about the database I just heard that the rumor twitter is abandoning rails is false. The real truth I was told is that twitter is partly on the rails platform and partly just in pure ruby. and the commentator ahead of me is right. It’s probably really about the database

]]> By: Arachne Jericho http://www.webdevelopment2.com/twitter-bite-php-bullet/comment-page-1/#comment-27498 Arachne Jericho Sat, 10 May 2008 20:08:50 +0000 http://www.webdevelopment2.com/?p=308#comment-27498 PHP versus Rails is a non-starter when it comes to web applications. The bottleneck is the database---or in Twitter's case, the bottleneck is the sheer amount of communication that happens over Twitter. It's like a clique graph; if all users just followed 100 followers, that would be fine. Unfortunately, some follow some thousands, and the number of updates Twitter must coordinate is immense. That's the bottleneck. It's massive and not easily solved---certainly not by switching languages. Whether they use Rails or PHP doesn't come anywhere near it. Many people have no idea what it takes to scale truly large systems. Now I must count TechCrunch among them. Sigh. PHP versus Rails is a non-starter when it comes to web applications. The bottleneck is the database—or in Twitter’s case, the bottleneck is the sheer amount of communication that happens over Twitter. It’s like a clique graph; if all users just followed 100 followers, that would be fine. Unfortunately, some follow some thousands, and the number of updates Twitter must coordinate is immense.

That’s the bottleneck. It’s massive and not easily solved—certainly not by switching languages.

Whether they use Rails or PHP doesn’t come anywhere near it.

Many people have no idea what it takes to scale truly large systems. Now I must count TechCrunch among them. Sigh.

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