I've written what I hope to be a fairly objective comparison of Perl and PHP in Re: Preaching Perl gospel to PHP converts.... But further to that here's a simple list of the various differences between the two languages

Perl PHP
Language features
Lexical scoping and dynamic scoping Functions have unique scopes
3 different contexts (scalar, list, void) No context types
5 different sigils - $,@,%,&,* One sigil - $
Regular expressions part of the language Regular expressions accessable through functions
Data
Scalars, Arrays, Hashes Scalars, Arrays/Hash duality
Type-ignorant with roughly 3 types (string, number, reference) Type-ignorant with roughly 13 different types (see. is_ functions)
Explicit references Optional explicit references
Pass by value Implicit (i.e it should do the right thing)
Functions
Can be called with 3 different syntaxes Called with one syntax
Anonymous functions part of the language Anonymous functions from create_function
Can be referenced Symbolic calls
Args implicitly aliased to @_ Named args
Objects
Created through blessing a reference Created through new Class
Multiple Inheiritance Single Inheritance
Class variables aren't standard Class variables part of the language

This is by no means exhaustive or entirely accurate but should give you some ideas of the fundamental differences between the two languages.
HTH

_________
broquaint

In reply to Re: Re: Re: php + Smarty looks like CGI by broquaint
in thread php + Smarty looks like CGI by Anonymous Monk

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