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World Congress 2023 • Oct 23, 2023

Phel, a native Lisp for PHP

Jose Reales

Want to write Clojure-style Lisp without leaving PHP? Meet Phel, a native functional dialect that brings pure functions and immutable data structures directly to your PHP runtime.

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#1 about 2 min

Origins and architectural concept of the Phel language

The history of the open-source project and its foundation as a Lisp dialect compiling to PHP.

#2 about 2 min

Core functional principles and basic Phel syntax demonstration

Contrasting functional immutability against object-oriented state before introducing basic Lisp parenthesis syntax.

#3 about 2 min

Native data types and control structures in Phel

Exploring essential functional data structures, conditional operators, and looping mechanisms unique to the language.

#4 about 1 min

Seamless interoperability and object instantiation with native PHP

Accessing native PHP functions, instantiating objects, and leveraging the Composer ecosystem directly from Phel code.

#5 about 1 min

Exploring the read-eval-print loop and Docker environment

Utilizing an official Docker image to quickly launch an interactive interpreter for real-time development.

#6 about 2 min

Demonstrating a terminal-based Snake game built in Phel

A practical code walkthrough of building an interactive terminal application using pure functional logic and recursion.

#7 about 2 min

Compiler refactoring insights and educational goals of Phel

Recent architecture updates to the compiler and community resources for teaching functional concepts to PHP engineers.

Matching moments

3:33 min

Embracing Lisp syntax and metaprogramming paradigms

Dan Lebrero · LIVE

1:36 min

Introduction to Project Loom and reactive programming

Jan Weinschenker Jan Weinschenker · WWC 2024

4:54 min

Learning Java features and design patterns interactively

Jakov Semenski · LIVE

1:43 min

Key benefits of learning the Clojure programming language

Tobias Schröder · WWC 2021

1:50 min

Approaching Java development with a Clojure mindset

Dan Lebrero · LIVE

8:39 min

Reflecting on language design history and future competitors

Bjarne Stroustrup · WWC 2022

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