I wrote about the Polling API RFC a few weeks back and framed it as underrated, mostly because the coverage kept missing that the real motivation was the internal php_poll.h API rather than the userspace Io\Poll classes. I stand by that. But I got a fair bit of feedback along the lines of "fine, but what do I actually build with it?" That is a reasonable question, and it is the one I want to answer here.
The timing is good for it too. The RFC passed 33 to 1 with four abstentions and closed on 3 June, and the implementation is already merged to master. Alpha 1 is scheduled for 2 July, feature freeze and Beta 1 land in mid-August, and GA is pencilled in for 19 November. Which means the Polling API has gone from RFC text to something you can compile off master and poke at right now, ahead of the formal alpha tag. So that is what I did.
At the same time, there is a genuinely live argument running through the PHP community right now about which async approach to actually use in production: Fibers with a userland event loop, ReactPHP, Swoole, or Amp v3 on Revolt. Nobody has tied that debate cleanly to what the Polling API changes. I want to do that properly, with real code, not just vibes.
