Non-blocking IO for the masses (WebEngDUS)

I/O is everywhere. I/O is slow. There's no denying it. Using traditional blocking I/O calls can thus be seen as a huge contributor to slow applications. This talk discusses how non-blocking I/O can help in building high performance, event-driven, reactive, concurrent, single-threaded applications (bingo). Don't worry, no need to install Node.js and npm install half the internet. Let's build high-performance applications from scratch with whatever language you're most comfortable with!

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This talk was presented at WebEngDUS (https://www.meetup.com/de-DE/Web-Engineering-Duesseldorf/events/252097938/) as one of three talks this day (~20 min each). This implies that this is only supposed to be a 101 introduction.

You can find the examples (source code) here: https://gist.github.com/clue/e0425c34c0ab13e8496716aae0219245

Transcript

1. non-blocking I/O for the masses
   High performance for fun and profit.
   

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2. Agenda
   - Hello!
   - 101 of non-blocking I/O
   - Examples from scratch
   - Putting into practice
   - Conclusions
   2
   

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3. Hello!
   3
   

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4. $ whoami
   4
   

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5. $ whoami
   Christian Lück
   5
   

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6. $ whoami
   Christian Lück
   6
   

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7. $ whoami
   Christian Lueck
   7
   

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8. $ whoami
   Christian Lueck
   8
   

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9. $ whoami
   Christian Lueck
   @clue
   9
   

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10. $ whoami
    Christian Lueck
    @another_clue
    10
    

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11. $ whoami
    Christian Lueck
    @another_clue
    passionate about pushing the limits
    11
    

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12. $ whoami
    Christian Lueck
    @another_clue
    passionate about pushing the limits
    freelance software engineer 12
    

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13. Who are you?
    13
    now that you know me…
    

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14. Who are you?
    14
    now that you know me…
    - programmers / developers?
    - architects / engineers?
    

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15. What is non-blocking I/O?
    15
    

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16. What is I/O?
    16
    

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17. input / output
    17
    

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18. IPO
    18
    

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19. IPO
    19
    input = read()
    

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20. IPO
    20
    input = read()
    result = process(input)
    

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21. IPO
    21
    input = read()
    result = process(input)
    output(result)
    

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22. I/O is everywhere
    22
    

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23. I/O is everywhere
    third party HTTP APIs (RESTful, SOAP, you name it…)
    23
    

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24. I/O is everywhere
    third party HTTP APIs (RESTful, SOAP, you name it…)
    mysql, postgres
    24
    

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25. I/O is everywhere
    third party HTTP APIs (RESTful, SOAP, you name it…)
    mysql, postgres
    filesystem I/O (session files)
    25
    

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26. I/O is everywhere
    third party HTTP APIs (RESTful, SOAP, you name it…)
    mysql, postgres
    filesystem I/O (session files)
    redis, memcache 26
    

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27. I/O is everywhere!
    27
    

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28. 28
    Source: Latency Numbers Every Programmer Should Know: https://gist.github.com/jboner/2841832
    CPU vs I/O
    

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29. I/O is slow!
    29
    

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30. What is non-blocking I/O?
    30
    

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31. the idea
    31
    

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32. the idea
    calculations are fast
    32
    

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33. the idea
    calculations are fast
    I/O is slow
    33
    

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34. the idea
    calculations are fast
    I/O is slow
    why wait?
    34
    

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35. Show me some code!
    Programming language?
    35
    

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36. Node.js
    36
    

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37. Node.js
    37
    good fit, huge ecosystem
    

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38. Node.js
    38
    good fit, huge ecosystem
    did not invent concept
    

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39. Node.js
    39
    good fit, huge ecosystem
    did not invent concept
    npm install…
    

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40. nodejs?
    40
    

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41. no js!
    41
    

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42. Everybody’s favorite language…
    42
    

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43. PHP
    43
    

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44. PHP
    44
    gets the job done
    

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45. PHP
    45
    gets the job done
    widespread usage
    

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46. PHP
    46
    gets the job done
    widespread usage
    if PHP can do it…
    

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47. Examples and demo time
    47
    

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49. Putting into practice
    49
    

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50. Knowing concepts
    is good!
    50
    Building from
    scratch is not!
    

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51. Non-blocking I/O can get complex
    51
    

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52. Non-blocking I/O can get complex
    use abstractions!
    52
    

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55. 55
    related
    

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56. 56
    related
    event-driven
    

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57. 57
    related
    event-driven
    asynchronous
    

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58. 58
    related
    event-driven
    asynchronous
    multi-threaded
    

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59. core concept
    59
    

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60. core concept
    often intertwined
    60
    

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62. for the masses?
    62
    

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63. 700 MiB/s
    63
    dockerd maxed out
    PHP not
    

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64. 5k requests/s
    64
    this is a local single core benchmark!
    dual core i3 => 10k requests/s
    36M requests/h
    

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65. 50k OP/s
    pure PHP
    who needs native code anyway?
    65
    

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66. non-blocking I/O is
    massively fast
    66
    

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67. for the masses?
    67
    

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68. when?
    68
    

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69. when?
    69
    app is I/O bound
    

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70. when?
    70
    app is I/O bound
    high(er) performance is wanted
    

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71. when?
    71
    app is I/O bound
    high(er) performance is wanted
    blocking and non-blocking can be separated
    

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72. non-blocking I/O is
    massively useful
    72
    

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73. Conclusions
    73
    

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74. nbio
    74
    

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75. nbio
    75
    basic paradigm
    

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76. nbio
    76
    basic paradigm
    very fast & versatile
    

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77. nbio
    77
    basic paradigm
    very fast & versatile
    consider when app is I/O bound
    

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78. integration
    78
    

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79. integration
    non-blocking and blocking don’t mix well
    79
    

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80. integration
    non-blocking and blocking don’t mix well
    decide for either approach
    80
    

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81. integration
    non-blocking and blocking don’t mix well
    decide for either approach
    isolate & communicate
    81
    

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82. ReactPHP
    82
    

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83. ReactPHP
    83
    a real deal and here to stay
    

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84. ReactPHP
    84
    a real deal and here to stay
    stable & production ready
    

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85. ReactPHP
    85
    a real deal and here to stay
    stable & production ready
    *awesome*
    

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88. // thank you!
    $loop->stop();
    88
    @another_clue – https://lueck.tv/
    

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