PHP Advantages?

Anon

Ive been told by a few people to switch my site over to PHP yet they didn't have answers to all of my questions, so, hopefully you guys can.

What are the advantages besides speed of converting to PHP?
Will search engines still be able to read my pages?
Does PHP have any major drawbacks?
How much different is it from straight html? am i going to have to learn a whole new language?

Thanks for answering these, i might have more later but this is a start.

Anon

switch from what to php ?

Html is not a programming langage (try creating a loop, or to do a test in order to display something, or simply to handle a form with pure html).

Php advantage over lots of languages:
it s free 🙂

Php advantage over perl:
you can put code directly in your html file, and if you use templates, it s really a good and easy way to work with someone thant doesnt code but is a good html designer.
(perl is still a wonderfull choice for administrative scripting 🙂 )

I dont know about search engine, i guess it depends which one.

Anon

1: Besides speed (which PHP has lots of) php is a language that is easy to code in for most beginners, yet advanced enough to keep most pros interested and not make them feel "boxed in" like many canned packages like cold fusion. Also, almost any web server and OS combo you can think of can run PHP, preventing worries about scalability and vendor lock in.

PHP is very extendable, so much so you can write your own modules. Want a database connector for a database no one uses? You can hire a programmer to do it for you or roll your own. Since the source is available, there's plenty of examples to look through.

2: Yes, search engines can search your pages. Note that if a search engine is programmed to only view pages ending in .htm or .html, you can set up apache to serve .htm files with php inside.

3: PHP drawbacks: While PHP supports OO programming, it's not as mature as Java or Perl or C++. You really have to know how to run build files from tar balls to get the most out of it, but that's true with most open source software.

4: PHP is programmed right into your html page just Microsoft's ASP is. It's a little easier than Perl, a little tougher than Visual Basic and Cold Fusion.