Total Beginner

wjday

Hi,
I am intersted in learning languages such as PHP and Perl (to help seek employment) and come from a mainly C/C++ background.
What would be the best way to get into PHP? How is it different from Perl? What type of programs can I write that use Perl? What browser, server etc do I need?

I have written program in C that prints results in HTML format, by printing out the arguments. Would a good start be to mofidy this program so that it uses PHP to do this?

Thanks,

Bill

_SuperString

A good place to start is by reading a PHP and/or Perl book.
I would suggest 'PHP for beginners' by Wrox, or 'PHP and MySQL web development' by Sams. These are good books to get started with.
PHP is really just for programming websites.
Perl is for lots more - you can write complete applications for multiple platforms, it more powerful than PHP and a larger learning curve.

for PHP you will need to install the PHP parser from PHP.NET and its advisable to install a Database Server like MySQL .
For Perl you will need the perl parser form Perl.com .
Both run in multiple platforms.

good luck.

wjday

Can I not use PHP to print the output of a program written in C, C++ or Java in a browser?

...Or is PHP pricipally used for database query results?

Bill

edwardsbc

Not sure what you mean by "print the output". PHP can certainly open and process files. But perhaps you mean something else?

PHP IS a general purpose scripting language, much like perl. You can run it from the command line without undo difficulty. However, PHP's real strength is when it is used in conjunction with a web server and a database. Most of the thousands of functions in PHP are designed to make web/database development easier.

The developers of PHP have optimised it for web development, so that is where you are most likely to encounter it. It also means that if you are not doing web development there is likely a better tool available. Pick the right tool for the job.