Advanced terms
Python Descriptor Protocol
Python 3.6+
Objects implementing __get__/__set__/__delete__ that intercept attribute access at the class level — the machinery behind property, classmethod, and ORM fields.
2d ago
python advanced
Prompt Injection Attack
An attack where crafted user input overrides or hijacks an LLM's system instructions, causing it to ignore its intended behaviour and follow attacker-supplied commands instead.
CWE-74 OWASP LLM01:2025
2mo ago
ai_ml advanced
PHP Fibers — Internals & Scheduler Patterns
PHP 8.1+ How PHP Fibers work under the hood — stack allocation, suspension mechanics, and how to build a cooperative multitasking scheduler on top of the Fiber API introduced in PHP 8.1.
2mo ago
php advanced
PCNTL Signals in CLI PHP
PHP 7.1+
The PCNTL extension lets CLI PHP scripts handle OS signals (SIGTERM, SIGINT, SIGUSR1) — enabling graceful shutdown and hot reload in long-running daemons.
2mo ago
php advanced
PHP Garbage Collection Internals (Cycle Collector)
PHP 5.3+
PHP uses reference counting as its primary memory management strategy — when a value's reference count drops to zero it is freed immediately. A secondary cycle collector handles circular references that reference counting alone cannot free.
2mo ago
php advanced
PHP Memory Model — Zval & Copy-on-Write
PHP 7.0+
PHP stores every value in a zval (Zend value) container that holds the type, value, and a reference count. Arrays and strings are copied lazily — the copy only happens when one copy is modified (copy-on-write), making passing large values cheap until mutation.
2mo ago
php advanced
PHP Sodium Extension (Libsodium)
PHP 7.2+
The Sodium extension (bundled since PHP 7.2) provides modern, misuse-resistant cryptography via the libsodium C library — covering authenticated encryption, key exchange, password hashing with Argon2, and digital signatures with a simple, safe API.
2mo ago
php advanced
Prompt Injection Attacks (LLM Security)
An attack where malicious instructions embedded in user input or retrieved content override an LLM's system prompt — causing it to ignore its instructions, reveal confidential information, or take unintended actions.
2mo ago
security advanced
Property Hooks (PHP 8.4)
PHP 8.4+
PHP 8.4 property hooks add get and set accessors directly to property declarations — eliminating the need for explicit getter/setter methods on simple value objects.
2mo ago
php advanced
preg_replace /e Modifier (Removed)
PHP 3.0+
The /e modifier in preg_replace() evaluated the replacement as PHP code — removed in PHP 7.0. Any legacy code using it is a critical RCE vulnerability.
2mo ago
security advanced
P vs NP & NP-Completeness
P problems are solvable in polynomial time; NP problems have solutions verifiable in polynomial time. NP-complete problems are the hardest in NP — no polynomial-time algorithm is known.
3mo ago
algorithms advanced
PHP Async Frameworks
PHP 8.1+
ReactPHP and Amp provide event-loop async I/O — enabling concurrent HTTP requests without blocking.
3mo ago
performance advanced
PHP Compilation Pipeline
PHP 5.0+
5
Source code → lexer → tokens → parser → AST → compiler → opcodes → Zend VM — OPcache intercepts after compilation to cache and reuse opcodes across requests.
3mo ago
compiler advanced
PHP Concurrency Options
PHP 7.0+
PHP's concurrency toolkit — Fibers for cooperative multitasking, pcntl for process forking, pthreads for true threading (CLI only), and async frameworks (ReactPHP, Amp).
3mo ago
concurrency advanced
PHP Intl Extension — Unicode
PHP 5.3+
Grapheme functions, Normalizer, and Transliterator — correct multilingual text handling beyond what mb_string provides, including emoji and combining characters.
3mo ago
php advanced
Platform Engineering
Building internal developer platforms that abstract infrastructure complexity — giving product teams self-service access to deployment, observability, and data services without ops tickets.
3mo ago
devops advanced
Polyglot Persistence
1
Using multiple different database technologies in a single application — each chosen for what it does best rather than forcing all data into one general-purpose store.
3mo ago
general advanced
Ports & Adapters (PHP Worked Example)
PHP 7.0+
Hexagonal Architecture in PHP — the application core exposes ports (interfaces), and adapters implement them for HTTP, CLI, databases, and external services.
3mo ago
architecture advanced
Post-Quantum Cryptography
3
CRYSTALS-Kyber (ML-KEM) and CRYSTALS-Dilithium (ML-DSA) standardised by NIST in 2024 — designed to resist attacks from quantum computers.
3mo ago
cryptography advanced
PostgreSQL VACUUM & ANALYZE
PHP 5.0+ VACUUM reclaims storage from dead tuples created by MVCC updates and deletes. ANALYZE updates query planner statistics. Both are essential for PostgreSQL performance.
3mo ago
database advanced