What are the advantages

[Anon]

Hi!

I am trying to determine the advantages of using PHP over Perl in conjunction with a MySql database.

Things that i would be looking for benifit in is dyanmic html display (such as cascading lists that can be expanded in a tree like format), integration with MySql, compatability with various db's and ability to interface with other applications and the unix environment (in particular Irix).

Any thoughts on this would be appreciated...

Matt

[Anon]

I'll take a kick at the can.

Note:
I do not know Perl so this is necessarily a one-side opinion.

But:
I have only been using PHP and learning it for the past three weeks, and I have the following up and running:

• MySQL db
• content management system that lets nontechnical people contribute
• management system that lets me both approve and create .php files for new articles in one click
• a templating system based on PHPlib that keeps my HTML in one place, my code in another, and my content in yet another.

But the best part is:
I'm still a major PHP newbie! I feel like I hardly know anything ... but I'm managed to get a LOT done.

Why?
There's tons of help ... lots of good books ... lots of online resources ... and places like this where you can ask for help - and get it!

There's more but you get the picture: the learning curve has been pretty quick.

I'm happy with PHP!
-john

PS:
I guess one final thing is that PHP is cross-platform. I mean, I'm doing it on Linux and I think that's the best but it will also work on NT if you're so inclined.

[Anon]

Well, speed, unless you like mod_perl, is going to be on PHP's side. Other than that, the main reason I can think of for using Perl is that it's installed nearly everywhere (speaking unixly) and is a great glue language. PHP, not so much but I think it's faster to develop web apps in PHP.