Re: •Re: Re: •Re: Perl or php for database edits?

mod_perl is extremely fast. See the success stories at http://perl.apache.org.

Granted, mod_perl is extremely fast. I've only done very little mod_perl programming, but what I have done illustrated to me that mod_perl is not trivial to setup - it is very powerful, but with that power and performance comes some complexity. Just my opinion :-)

There are about 30 different ways of mixing HTML and Perl in the CPAN. And what's with this obsession with "out of the box"? I can type one CPAN command to install all of Mason or Template or HTML::Template or EmbPerl. And this way, I can choose which model I want to use, not a lock-in with the One Only Way of PHP.

Again, granted. Perl has had many great modules developed to enable people to program websites more easily. But, you have to choose one, and learn it, and then use it to create your website. With PHP, there is one way to do it - no other packages to know, or download - even if downloading and installing is only a 1-step process.

I'm not attacking Perl - really I'm not! I'm just trying to present PHP as a likable alternative to Perl *for web application programming*. PHP was designed from-the-ground-up for that purpose, whereas Perl was not. If you like Perl, then definitely Perl is a very stable, mature environment where you can find modules that either already do, or make easier, almost any task you need to have programmed - including web development.

Comment on Re: •Re: Re: •Re: Perl or php for database edits?

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Re: Re: •Re: Re: •Re: Perl or php for database edits? by diotalevi (Canon) on Oct 02, 2002 at 17:45 UTC
Likeable? No. Useable? Yes. I tried to get into PHP some and was constantly being amazed at the odd namespaces people chose, the fact that object oriented programming is deprecated in PHP(!), the difficulty in initial setup, the difficulty in adding libraries, the difficulty in doing secure programming, no parameter binding for database statement handles, the useless variable sigil ( why have it at all if you're going to use the same sigil for everything?). While the PHP language was supposedly designed to incorporate the best ideas from C and Perl, I get the impression that in fact, many of the lesser ideas also made it through and not enough bright ones. Obviously I'm biased but I'm also tring to be practical. The things I know that save me time and trouble as a programmer are either missing or difficult to work with in PHP. The only reason it's even an issue is that for ISP webhosting PHP supposedly works better. While I like mod_perl it's a bitch to get an ISP to run it and then it costs extra. PHP tends to be built in with the default packages (everyplace I looked at anyway) and it becomes an economic question: do I ask for mod_perl and pay extra or use PHP for no extra cost. I suppose I'll eventually buckle down and figure it out so I'm competent in PHP but it's so hard to justify leaving my perl toolbox at home. I'm really anticipating a mod_parrot (no, not the one that exists now, something real that's meant for production) that can be an ISP friendly $Language hosting container. Yeah, gimme some more of that. __SIG__ `printf "You are here %08x\n", unpack "L!", unpack "P4", pack "L!", B::svref_2object(sub{})->OUTSIDE`	[reply] [d/l]

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Re: Re: •Re: Re: •Re: Perl or php for database edits?
by diotalevi (Canon) on Oct 02, 2002 at 17:45 UTC

Likeable? No. Useable? Yes. I tried to get into PHP some and was constantly being amazed at the odd namespaces people chose, the fact that object oriented programming is deprecated in PHP(!), the difficulty in initial setup, the difficulty in adding libraries, the difficulty in doing secure programming, no parameter binding for database statement handles, the useless variable sigil ( why have it at all if you're going to use the same sigil for everything?).

While the PHP language was supposedly designed to incorporate the best ideas from C and Perl, I get the impression that in fact, many of the lesser ideas also made it through and not enough bright ones. Obviously I'm biased but I'm also tring to be practical. The things I know that save me time and trouble as a programmer are either missing or difficult to work with in PHP. The only reason it's even an issue is that for ISP webhosting PHP supposedly works better. While I like mod_perl it's a bitch to get an ISP to run it and then it costs extra. PHP tends to be built in with the default packages (everyplace I looked at anyway) and it becomes an economic question: do I ask for mod_perl and pay extra or use PHP for no extra cost. I suppose I'll eventually buckle down and figure it out so I'm competent in PHP but it's so hard to justify leaving my perl toolbox at home. I'm really anticipating a mod_parrot (no, not the one that exists now, something real that's meant for production) that can be an ISP friendly $Language hosting container. Yeah, gimme some more of that.

__SIG__
printf "You are here %08x\n", unpack "L!", unpack "P4", pack "L!", B::svref_2object(sub{})->OUTSIDE

[reply]
[d/l]