what can't PHP do?

smilley654

I was wondering if there is anything anything on what PHP can't do. I also would like to know if there are any articles or information on comparison of similar scripts/languages and their strength/weaknesses. For example, I have been told that Javascript is good for client-side programming, but don't know the strengths and weaknesses. The reason I would like to aquire this information, is because I need to know what languages to use for what projects. I heard there are other languages, including Python, CGI, Perl, just to name a few, but don't know why to use CGI over Perl, and so forth.

Thanks all for your time!

piersk

PHP cant do anything on the client side, ie when you want to automatically change the background colour of a webpage, whereas javascript would be able to do it automatically, PHP would have to reload the page with the new background colour in it.

Rather than get an idea of what it CAN'T do, ever thought about working out what it CAN do. Try checking the manual here.

dannys

piersk's right - PHP is strictly serverside (you'll need to use javascript on the clientside) , but the same goes for all of the other languages you mentioned.

The main question to ask when choosing one language over another is 'How well do you know the language?'

If you've got 5years solid Perl experience then it would a bit daft to switch to PHP for your next Big Progect - stick with what you know.

If you don't really know any one language more than the rest then try them all out! PHP is a good choice - it's fairly easy to learn, fast and has a lot of 3rd party extensions.

Perl has more extensions (checkout CPAN) and will be available on more servers but (IMO) has a steeper learning curve.

Ruby, Python and others are newer languages - built with modern ideas in mind and are very OO (you can add and remove functions from Ruby classes on the fly, for example). But, because they're new they aren't ony many servers, don't have as many extensions and you won't find as many books and forums.

CGI - Common Gateway Interface - is merely a standard way for the webserver and your chosen language's compiler to communicate with each other. (At least that's what I was told)