Don't worry, you are not the only one who uses perl for non-CGI programming. I mean, I use perl to maintain and support ADA, so beat that :)

In response to your comments about PHP not being used for much other than CGI you are correct. PHP developers and advocates say that you can use it for non-CGI programming, and I have seen examples of this, but it has not caught on. Why? I'm not sure, I think it may be because that for non web applications, most people prefer perl, *sh, or python. Another reason why PHP is not used for non web applications is that perl is much superior in that respect. The reasons are CPAN, and a less focused language. PHP was developed mainly for web programming, while perl was developed for... um.... well, because Larry Wall was lazy I guess, which led to the wonderful world of CPAN and modules.

Also, in response to the main node:

Another thing to think about in your choice of a language for web development is security. Some of the basic, default behavior of PHP is(was) a security problem. I don't have any specific evidence at the moment, but I know there were several big security issues regarding PHP. These issues don't apply to well designed sites, but were very easy for beginners to make.

I'm not saying that perl is better than PHP, or that PHP shouldn't be used, I'm just saying use whichever language suits your needs, and you feel more comfortable to use for programming a secure environment

--xPhase