Regarding syck vs. spyc debate which seems to appear again and again:
al_n @ [link]:
I re tested syck and it does make a BIG difference.
I tested with a yaml file of about 200,000 lines which I killed after an hour while using spyc. The same file was loaded with syck in about 5 minutes!!!
p.s. I hope to find some time, to release an updated pecl-package of syck really soon. Please, remind me to do it 
Thanx a lot for this extension. YML is a very attractive format. Especially after some Symfony usage