Re: Perl and Infiltrating PHP Workplaces

Well, PHP is horrible for sorting any sort of nested structure (I haven't yet figured out how to do it), and figuring out the proper format for regex under PHP is also a pain. Plus, everything just seems to take twice as long to type. On the other hand, PHP can be inserted inside your page, so I've found it easiest to write simple things in PHP and difficult things (or things that have to be called by cron jobs) in Perl. This way I don't have to mess with templating systems.

Bottom line, take the job that pays best and learn PHP - you're not selling out, Perl isn't necessarily the best solution to everything - but steer the company towards Perl for any admin or data processing work. Perl offers the most gain when its strengths are catered to. I never use PHP for anything complicated, it's just that many things aren't complicated.

I doubt you're going to find a company already using PHP that will let you switch them entirely to Perl, unless you happen to be their only programmer and can show that you produce working solutions many times faster in Perl.

Comment on Re: Perl and Infiltrating PHP Workplaces

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Re^2: Perl and Infiltrating PHP Workplaces by bradcathey (Prior) on May 24, 2006 at 02:43 UTC
On the other hand, PHP can be inserted inside your page Which is precisely why we don't use PHP, ASP, or CF. As a graphic design firm, we need to keep the executable code as far from the presentation and structual code as possible, other our designers (who are not programmers) get confused between the two. The other thing that we are not crazy about is that PHP seems to have a function for everything where Perl leaves a bit more to the imagination. But the long and the short of it is that it's what you get used to. —Brad "The important work of moving the world forward does not wait to be done by perfect men." George Eliot	[reply]
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Re^2: Perl and Infiltrating PHP Workplaces by Anonymous Monk on May 26, 2006 at 00:26 UTC
Love Perl is being romantic, but use Perl for everything is being stupid.	[reply]