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Backend of Meta Threads is built with Python 3.10

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Re: Backend of Meta Threads is built with Python 3.10

#251

Post by zitterbewegung »

troupo wrote: post #218
supernikio2 wrote: post #203

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm of course speaking from an outsider's point of view, but do you think PHP was a good option, or was it a "fitting a square peg into a round hole" situation?

> but do you think PHP was a good option, or was it a "fitting a square peg into a round hole" situation? Facebook was founded in 2004 . Whatever fancy tech you're thinking that would fit the round hole, it didn't exist then. They also never thought it would serve a couple billion of users one day, so they built it in whatever they had and knew at the time. Same for Instagram and Python (they started with Django).

How they have used Instagram with Django is that they have replaced pieces of Django over time with custom parts which is a benefit of the design of Django.

Re: Backend of Meta Threads is built with Python 3.10

#252

Post by Solvency »

rafark wrote: post #149
xuancanh wrote: post #119

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It may not be because of Python, but Thread is definitely not ready for the current load. Few hours ago no one could access to Zuck's profile page, and he had to take it to private to hide the issue.

Tweets load very slowly on my end. So slow I thought there was a js error on my end, you know, like when you get a never ending spinner animation because there was an unhandled exception thrown.

Surely you mean threads.

Re: Backend of Meta Threads is built with Python 3.10

#253

Post by FredPret »

appplication wrote: post #99
sgt wrote: post #96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Interesting and lovely to hear they decided to use Django. What is your source, though?

How is Django now? I’m a long time python dev (data eng space) but new-ish to web dev. I started a Flask project 2 years ago and found it to be pretty full of footguns, mixed messaging on best practices for scalable apps, and the ecosystem feels overbloated with vapor ware extensions. Is this just a Flask problem, or does Django have the same issues?

I'm a self-taught noob as far as web engineering goes, but between this course (cs50.harvard.edu/web/2020/) and ChatGPT, I got several commercial Django sites live in a very short amount of time and effort.

Re: Backend of Meta Threads is built with Python 3.10

#256

Post by yuliyp »

jonhohle wrote: post #225
grishka wrote: post #201

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Curiously, VKontakte also started from PHP+MySQL but went another way. PHP is compiled ahead of time with something called KittenPHP. It's open-source. For databases they switched some parts to their own bespoke solutions in C that talk with PHP over the memcached protocol. These are called KittenDB (or "engines") for the simple single-purpose ones, and there was also a more generic MySQL replacement in development w…

I’m not sure why someone of facebook’s scale would want JIT instead of AOT. That’s a lot of servers all JITing the same thing that could be done once at build time.

Facebook actually does some compile-time optimizations, but also ships some of the profiling data for JITing between early deploy phases and the rest of the fleet: https://engineering.fb.com/2021/03/03/developer-tools/hhvm-j...

Also, Facebook used to do ahead of time compilation (HPHPc) but eventually HHVM managed to outperform it.

Re: Backend of Meta Threads is built with Python 3.10

#257

Post by woadwarrior01 »

jonhohle wrote: post #225
grishka wrote: post #201

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Curiously, VKontakte also started from PHP+MySQL but went another way. PHP is compiled ahead of time with something called KittenPHP. It's open-source. For databases they switched some parts to their own bespoke solutions in C that talk with PHP over the memcached protocol. These are called KittenDB (or "engines") for the simple single-purpose ones, and there was also a more generic MySQL replacement in development w…

I’m not sure why someone of facebook’s scale would want JIT instead of AOT. That’s a lot of servers all JITing the same thing that could be done once at build time.

HHVM's predecessor at FB was an AOT PHP to C++ transpiler called HPHPc. There are a lot more optimization opportunities with JIT compilation when dealing with dynamically typed languages like PHP.

Re: Backend of Meta Threads is built with Python 3.10

#258

Post by andrewstuart »

If you know you’ve got gigantic scale why would you not use a compiled language?

Surely it makes massive difference to hardware utilization?

I like Python and javascript but there’s perfectly fine tools around now for building systems that allow one server to do a lot more.

They say you should not prematurely optimize. Equally you should not be prematurely unoptimised.

Re: Backend of Meta Threads is built with Python 3.10

#260

Post by paulddraper »

andrewstuart wrote: post #258

If you know you’ve got gigantic scale why would you not use a compiled language? Surely it makes massive difference to hardware utilization? I like Python and javascript but there’s perfectly fine tools around now for building systems that allow one server to do a lot more. They say you should not prematurely optimize. Equally you should not be prematurely unoptimised.

Using a compiled languages for web stuff is like using a Ferrari for a commute.

It's better, but not the limiting factor.

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