Topic: Way of the Future
Speaker: Jason Cosper
Jason’s talk was part of the Advanced Track at Wordcamp. It was more applicable for WordPress Developers, but I wanted to some exposure to the tools, techniques and mindset of developers.
Jason started his talk by referencing a presentation he gave at a Wordcamp 6 months or so in the past. This talk was a revision on his recommendation to use HHVM, a substitute in some ways for PHP. With the release of PHP 7, he has shifted his perspective and is now encouraging developers to use PHP 7.
Here are 3 key ideas from Jason’s presentation:
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Most WordPress sites are running on old versions of PHP
Jason noted that 67.9% of all PHP sites are powered by versions considered dead. In other words, website owners are not upgrading to more current versions of PHP.
By the way, PHP is the computer language used to run WordPress sites.
“Nobody builds sites for the past. You build them for the future.”
-Jason Cosper
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One reason b to switch to PHP 7is so your website will run faster
The whole reason Jason was previously endorsing HHVM was because websites ran faster using it.
Jason has run some tests and discovered that sites are running faster now on PHP 7 vs. HHVM.
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Test your website on PHP 7 using HGV
You can test your website on PHP 7 is a development environment to identify any bugs to fix before installing it on your production server
Jason also talked about HGV, which is a vagrant that can be used to test PHP 7 in a safe, development environment. Jason provided instructions to install and use HGV. You definitely need to be a computer programmer to understand this.
Overall, I found Jason’s talk interesting. My biggest takeaway is that I need to think about what version of PHP is running on my websites. I need to come up on with a plan to switch to PHP 7 over time.
In this sense, Wordcamp has brought an issue to my attention that I had not thought about. And I’m thankful for that.
About the Speaker: Jason Cosper
Jason Cosper is currently employed as the Developer Advocate for WP Engine. Honestly, that’s just a fancy way of saying “he gets paid to talk to people about WordPress development.” Nice work if you can get it.
In his spare time Jason hangs out with his wife Sarah, divides his attention between two very tiny dogs, maintains the Force Strong Passwords plugin, organizes the Bakersfield WordPress Meetup, grills various meats, scours the internet for vinyl, samples assorted craft beers & whiskeys, and writes cranky tweets about the Lakers.
Twitter: @boogah
Topic Description: Way of the Future
With the performance gains promised by HHVM and PHP 7, WordPress site admins are living in pretty exciting times. The PHP world at large is in a proverbial space race, and every WordPress site will (eventually) benefit. But early adopters and folks who manage their own servers shouldn’t be the only ones who get early access to these face melting bumps in speed. In this talk, I’ll be introducing you to things you can do to get your code ready for these next generation hosting environments. And we’ll cover where you can host your code once it’s ready. If you’re interested in attending this talk, a passing familiarity with the command line helps, but isn’t a hard requirement.
Presentation Slides:
https://speakerdeck.com/boogah/way-of-the-future
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Rick Cooper
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