I am surprised by the response and the comments and links are all valuable. I
think that this input leads me to refining the question a bit. I think the
follow up question should be: 'what are the boundary conditions - or maybe what
are the strengths and applicability'?
Concerning PHP vs Java: I read the comment 'you can't compare the two'. I also
read the OnePixelAhead summary. I read the great link on the PHP ORM project.
I also read the comments from Jo (which seem to mirror my own notions). In
addition, I just found this claim (I have not found any substantiation other
than this article which concludes that a "raw" benchmark test shows Java is 28
times faster than PHP - a rather significant number if correct)
http://www.thomasknierim.com/119/java/performance-java-vs-php-vs-scala/
Further clarification for the follow up question: The biggest problem I am
having right now is the *perception* (which is why I am trying to get
dispassionate analysis) - that 'PHP is great because WordPress is using it and
why, for God's ask would you write something in JSP & Cayenne' etc, etc - I
won't bore you - but I am trying to stay out of holy-war-ing it up and use real
numbers and boundary conditions. I think I am *trying* to get an answer from
an *outsider's* perspective or perhaps a project manager's perspective (who as
we all know sometimes are thrust into the manager's chair without having
programmed 1 line of code ever).
RE the great comment concerning Facebook being written in PHP - well I have to
agree but I would also be forced to agree that you could write Facebook in
assembly language - it would be insane but it could be done - I would
personally be able to manage the project however I wouldn't want to put it on
my resume because it is - errr - like totally stupid. :)
I think the followup question is analogous to: you have a Prius
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toyota_Prius) and a Fararri
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ferrari) - so WHICH CAR IS BETTER? Well clearly
this is a stupid question - but it illustrates what I believe to be the type of
question we have with PHP vs Java. Clearly the Fararri can be driven around
town at 25-45 MPH and it is legal and will do just fine - the car won't be
happy about this and really wants to drive at 150 MPH to keep its moral up -
but it will do the job (of course the fararri is Java if you haven't guessed :)
).
This might be a bit off the mark for Cayenne. However, Cayenne is affected by
a cogent PHP-Java applicability study that can be articulated and that has
dispassionate real numbers to back it up.
IMHO - for right now, I believe Java to be a cogent language written from the
ground up with an OO design pattern. That the performance is near C++ speeds.
That the libraries available are professional and reliable. That Cayenne
Rocks!. But, that PHP can be used to tackle very small projects very quickly,
and that if you have a high tolerance for pain it could be used for a large
project.
Thanks (and sorry for the length),
Joe
