Grr...
<read on>....
> Just some thoughts I'd put together for a friend. Feel free to flame
> :-)
> Why I prefer Perl
> or
> PHP sucks
>
> 1. PHP is not a general-purpose programming language. No matter how
> hard the creators of PHP try to make it one, it started out as an
> embedded web-programming language and continues to offer the richest
> set of features for that specific purpose. Attempts to make it
> general purpose so far are not useful enough to be taken seriously.
>
> How does this affect you? If you write a major app in PHP you cannot
> use it in any paradigm except a web-based one. You may argue, `the
> web is where it's at, and I don't envisage any changes to my app' but
> that's narrow-minded and limited thinking. Good apps evolve over time
> into things that their creators did not and could not have imagined.
> Do you want to send your baby out into the world with the millstone of
> this limitation hanging about its neck from day one?
The day PHP evolves, the creators will come out with a version of PHP for
that purpose.
I infact like the fact that, PHP is only for web based uses and has been
targetted at a particular area. Which is also probably why it is becoming
the most popular language for web based applications.
> 2. (Corollary to Point 1) PHP doesn't support any mode of programming
> except embedded into HTML. This makes it impossible to, for example,
> adapt a PHP app to models such as SOAP, thin client, etc. Embedded
> into HTML is fine for low-end stuff. When you're dealing with larger
> or more complex apps, the distribution of logic in your PHP apps makes
> it impossible to administer, maintain and enhance them. If I have to
> scan the source of 200 HTML pages to figure out exactly which fields
> in a database get updated when the user fills out a form, I lose, the
> user loses, the developer of the app loses.
PHP was never made for this purpose. If you use a racing cycle in a F1 race,
you cant blame the cycle for your loss.
But PHP is quick to write and easiest to implement for tiny winy to
mediocre jobs.
> 3. Unlike Perl, PHP doesn't have vast repositories of library modules
> available for easy download. PHP developers are more or less stuck
> with the modules and functionality that the makers of PHP build into
> the language. While there's no denying that this functionality is
> very impressive, it is by definition limited.
haah ! more or less stuck. Probably you should read the netcraft surveys for
last 1.5 years again. Fastest growing language on the web, and liberaries
are more than triple than those developed for perl in the last 1.5 years, i
am sure.
> 4. PHP isn't an object-oriented programming language. OOP is a
> much-misused paradigm nowadays -- every programmer with 6 months of
> programming in Java calls him/herself an OO programmer. However,
> there's no denying that appropriate and sane use of OO can make
> programs that are much easier to maintain and enhance and share code
> from than programs using a purely functional interface. While PHP
> does have classes, it doesn't support some critical features of OO
> like multiple inheritance.
ahem! like which feature ? that are present in perl and not in PHP and are
"useful"(if possible please tell me an example use also).
> 5. PHP promotes insecure programming. I would not say that PHP is an
> insecure language; however PHP encourages people with little or no
> programming experience to get in and start writing without
> understanding the ramifications of their actions. Giving power
This is a point in favour of PHP.
> indiscriminately can be dangerous and the huge number of PHP exploits
> that are revealed each day in the security community prove the adage.
Same for Perl/asp/CGI/Tcl and every other lanaugage I thats popular.
> Further, PHP doesn't support secure programming features like taint
> checking in Perl.
OK, you have a point there. can taint mode be really useful for web based
apps btw...I have little knowledge on -t option.
> 6. PHP is not as efficient as Perl. This doesn't matter for smaller
> projects, but where there's large amounts of data to be processed the
> speed factor can become a significant criterion for determining the
> choice of a programming language.
Phhhhhhhhhhh! Time to buy Athalon.
> 7. Perl supports the same paradigm (embedded into HTML) as PHP does
> if you really need it, along with many enhancements like
> tamplate-based web page creation.
Available in PHP also.
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