On Wed, Oct 24, 2001 at 04:56:19PM -0500, Scott T. Hildreth wrote:
>
> Well I'm not a web developer, never used mod_perl, there is
> the article on Perl.com describing how they built e-toys with
> mod_perl. I think at the time it was the 3rd busiest web site
> at the time. I don't know if the hardware even compares, but
> you can take a look, if you haven't already.
Just to throw some fuel on the fire >:) I recently started working on a
paper and developed the following little tidbit based on my experience
using PHP and Perl, among other languages. It's painfully evident which
ones I don't have a fair amount of experience with, but would anyone like
to add to the data? :)
I personally don't think speed of execution is everything.
Comparison of languages:
Description C C++ Perl Python Tcl Shell PHP Lisp Forth
Namespace management N Y Y N N Y
File-scope globals Y Y Y Y N Y
Regular expressions N N Y Y(1) Y N
OOP support N Y Y Y N N(2) N
Run time code mutability Y Y Y Y(3) Y Y Y
Extensive lib collection N N Y N Y(4)
Closures N N Y N N N Y N
anonymous subroutines N N Y N N N Y N
automatic code creation N Y Y N N N N Y
memory management N N Y Y Y Y Y Y N
string support N N Y Y Y Y Y N
run as machine code Y Y N N N N N N Y
Notes:
(1) Limited to argument completion and switch statements.
(2) PHP support for objects is not much different than C++ support for
structures.
(3) With heavy wizardry.
(4) Not quite extensive, but it's getting there - PEAR is only a year or
so old.
What do we mean by the descriptions?
Namespace management:
This means we can have our own set of symbols without colliding with
identifiers from other libraries, files, or programs. This is denoted by
the `namespace' keyword in C++ and the `package' keyword in Perl.
File-scope globals:
Globals that are not visible outside the current file. This is supported
by the `static' keyword in C/C++ and the `my' keyword in Perl. This
might also be the default state of variables in Shell, with variables
visible outside of files requiring `export'.
OOP support:
This requires the following items:
Namespace for the object methods/definitions
Operator overloading
Inheritance, preferably multiple-inheritance
Polymorphism - same method name but appropriate function
Run time code mutability:
The running program should be able to modify and/or add to itself.
Extensive lib collection:
This requires a central repository from which code may be downloaded or
otherwise obtained. Examples: CPAN, CTAN. If Freshmeat were exlusively
C/C++ and was authoritative, it would be considered for C/C++. All the
Unix utilities didn't count as an extensive lib collection for shell.
Closures:
These are subroutines that capture the current lexical environment in
which they are defined, even though they may be used outside that
environment.
Anonymous subroutines:
These are subroutines with no names.
Automatic code creation:
This implies the compiler/interpreter (as appropriate) can create code as
needed. C++ satisfies this with templates. Perl with AUTOLOADs.
Memory management:
Allocation/deallocation of memory is automatic. The programmer doesn't
need to worry about this.
String support:
Are strings a fundamental data type.
Run as machine code:
Does anything actually get interpreted at run time or is it pure
machine? Forth qualifies because in the traditional implementation, the
interpreter is just a `jump engine' that follows pointers to the actual
machine code that does stuff. No `figuring out' is done at run time.
--jim
