[oak perl] Requests for Advise: Perl CGI or PHP?
Joshua Wait
joshnjillwait at yahoo.com
Tue Nov 29 10:15:26 PST 2005
When it comes to deciding which language to use for
developing a project, asking a group of Perl mongers
for their advice will almost certainly end up with the
answer "Perl, of course!".
However, perhaps I can remain true to Perl and offer
that Perl may not be the language of choice by
invoking "there's more than one way to do it".
You may be interested in reading this older article
"Server-side Scripting Shootout".
http://hotwired.lycos.com/webmonkey/99/46/index1a.html?tw=programming
It doesn't include languages such as Python and Ruby
which are growing in popularity.
PHP may be a mess of a language but my guess is that
it's possible to experience Perl as a mess of language
as well. The key difference between Perl and PHP is
that people who are looking for quick web solutions
are turning to PHP instead of Perl because of PHP's
current popularity. While I've seen plenty of bad perl
code (including the gibberish I've written), it seems
to me that I have found more really bad PHP code
because more beginners flock to it.
I think a key advantage of Perl over PHP is that you
can use Perl much more handily for a greater variety
of projects. I've even used Perl in a Cocoa app for
building a utility in Mac OS X. I wouldn't dare try
that with PHP.
On the other hand, PHP comes with a lot of features
you would want for delivering web content out of the
box without having to run to CPAN and download a dozen
modules. You may find yourself able to get up and
running on the web with PHP faster.
Culturally, PHP programmers tend to use an HTML page
with code embedded in it. Perl programmers tend to use
code with HTML embedded in it. If you feel more
comfortable with HTML than with code, then you may
find yourself more comfortable PHP than Perl. The
reverse is also true.
--JOSHUA
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> Today's Topics:
>
> 1. Test (Eugene)
> 2. Requests for Advise: Perl CGI or PHP? (Eugene)
> 3. Re: Requests for Advise: Perl CGI or PHP? (Zed
> Lopez)
>
>
>
----------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Message: 1
> Date: Sun, 27 Nov 2005 21:00:15 -0800
> From: Eugene <eugene at metaart.org>
> Subject: [oak perl] Test
> To: oakland at pm.org
> Message-ID: <200511272100.15709.eugene at metaart.org>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"
>
> Please ignore this test.
> (I'm having some strange problems.)
>
>
>
> ------------------------------
>
> Message: 2
> Date: Sun, 27 Nov 2005 21:03:47 -0800
> From: Eugene <eugene at metaart.org>
> Subject: [oak perl] Requests for Advise: Perl CGI or
> PHP?
> To: oakland at pm.org
> Message-ID: <200511271911.27277.eugene at metaart.org>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"
>
> I'm thinking of upgrading my personal website,
> mostly to make it easier to maintain.
> I want to do this upgrade now while the site is
> small.
> Initially, I'll likely focus on
> header information and navigation.
> I'm considering using either Perl CGI or PHP
> as the basis for my upgrade.
>
> Later, I don't know exactly what I'll want to do.
> However, whatever I do will likely be simple.
> For example, I do not expect to need to interface
> with a database.
>
> == Requests <<<<<<
> (1) I'd appreciate your thoughts on
> whether Perl CGI and PHP are reasonable
> choices.
> (2) If you feel they are reasonable choices,
> I'd appreciate any insights
> that might assist me in choosing between them.
>
> Thanks,
> Eugene
>
> P.S. So far, there's not much on my site,
> though, at least, there are no under construction
> signs.
> If you feel it would be useful to look at what I've
> created so far,
> there is a link to my personal site
> in my profile on the Oakland.pm site.
>
>
>
> ------------------------------
>
> Message: 3
> Date: Sun, 27 Nov 2005 23:27:22 -0800
> From: Zed Lopez <zed.lopez at gmail.com>
> Subject: Re: [oak perl] Requests for Advise: Perl
> CGI or PHP?
> To: Oakland Perl Mongers <oakland at pm.org>
> Message-ID:
>
>
<83a996de0511272327h4c86ef1fv22d353fc935673d9 at mail.gmail.com>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1
>
> Hi Eugene,
>
> With the sole exception of an application to be
> distributed to users
> in hosted environments, which tend to have mod_php
> installed a lot
> more often than mod_perl, I don't consider PHP to be
> a reasonable
> choice for anything -- it's a godawful mess of a
> language that manages
> to take pretty much all of Perl's flaws and magnify
> them a
> thousandfold. Now that my bias is on the table, you
> could do what you
> want with either.
>
> How well do you know each? The learning curve is
> probably a little
> shallower with PHP, but if you already have a
> working knowledge of
> Perl, you'll have no problem learning what you need.
> Last I was
> looking for a job, PHP was a more salable skill (if
> career development
> is a consideration.) But I think Perl is fun, and
> PHP is evil.
>
> So pick whichever catches your fancy -- like I said,
> either could
> manage your website, and you're not likely to find
> any issues in this
> domain where one becomes suddenly clearly superior.
>
> On 11/27/05, Eugene <eugene at metaart.org> wrote:
> > I'm thinking of upgrading my personal website,
> > mostly to make it easier to maintain.
> > I want to do this upgrade now while the site is
> small.
> > Initially, I'll likely focus on
> > header information and navigation.
> > I'm considering using either Perl CGI or PHP
> > as the basis for my upgrade.
> >
> > Later, I don't know exactly what I'll want to do.
> > However, whatever I do will likely be simple.
> > For example, I do not expect to need to interface
> > with a database.
> >
> > == Requests <<<<<<
> > (1) I'd appreciate your thoughts on
> > whether Perl CGI and PHP are reasonable
> choices.
> > (2) If you feel they are reasonable choices,
> > I'd appreciate any insights
> > that might assist me in choosing between
> them.
> >
> > Thanks,
> > Eugene
> >
> > P.S. So far, there's not much on my site,
> > though, at least, there are no under construction
> signs.
> > If you feel it would be useful to look at what
> I've created so far,
> > there is a link to my personal site
> > in my profile on the Oakland.pm site.
> >
> > _______________________________________________
> > Oakland mailing list
> > Oakland at pm.org
> > http://mail.pm.org/mailman/listinfo/oakland
> >
>
>
> ------------------------------
>
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>
> End of Oakland Digest, Vol 29, Issue 19
> ***************************************
>
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