PHP vs Java need advice!

Anon

Hello everyone--
Quick little question for you all. The company I work for is thinking about
doing away with PHP (we are using 3.0.15). We use it for all of our
intranet things, which is 100's of applications. They are wanting to go
with Java servlets, beans etc. The thing is everyone here loves PHP so we
are having to compile a big list why we want to keep it with our company.

I was wondering if anyone could possibly point me to ANY and ALL articles
talking about security, speed, and anything else you could think of that
would make PHP look good to the higher ups 🙂 Articles comparing PHP to
Java would be the best if there are any!

Any help would be GREAT because all the developers here love php and don't
want to have to rewrite everything using java.

Thanks,
Jay Paulson

Anon

I have a few problems with Java, some are philosophical, some pragmatic, some stylistic.

My first major problem with using Java as a server side solution, is that I've seen a lot of people trying to write their business rules in a bunch of java beans. Business rules should really reside in the database, so that programs can't just change them when they feel like it. Java tends to run slow, and letting it handle transactions is a recipe for disaster (i.e. server overload)

If you have an online store, that needs to ensure that several sql queries either all run or none run, then build the transaction into procedural sql, embed it in the database, and let the server side scripting language simply request the transaction and handle the error condition should the transaction fail, or tell the user that it worked, and their book is on the way.

My next problem with Java is that it's much more difficult to build and troubleshoot a running JSP server than it is an Apache/PHP server. Even Cold Fusion is a simpler solution to maintain.

Next, I'm not a fan of OO languages as my front side language (i.e. in the web server, not the sql server.) I like OO for things in databases, and postgresql fits the bill nicely there, as do some other more expensive databases. Again, let the database manipulate the objects, not the upper layer language.

Finally, a java server needs more resources to handle the same load as a PHP box doing the same thing. This means that the upper limit on simo connects and transactions per second is lower on a given piece of hardware for Java than for PHP.

I've tested fairly low end hardware with PHP/apache/postgresql scripts that could run anywhere from 2 to 20 transactions a second, with anywhere from 10 to 100 simo connections. That's with the database on the same single CPU 400MHz box as the web server, and only 128 Meg RAM. At 256 Meg of ram, I can usually double that number up to 200 simos, but only get about 5 tps at that level.

Lastly, the main reaons we like PHP for intranet programming is all the great stuff it can do almost right out of the box:

pdf printing
pop/imap interface
ldap
database connectivity out the wazoo
dynamic image creation
verisign, cybercash and CCVS for credit cards
XML parsing
spell checking
Recoding from one data format to another
Corba
shockwave

Why not talk the boss into letting you keep PHP while building JSP for a few test projects. Once you've had a chance to see the development time of projects in both, then make a decision.

Anon

I'm looking for good data when compairing the two technologies as well. I would appriciate your information as well. I have posted the folling to another phorum and would like to share it with you.

“Hello World” 🙂
I'm researching web application development technologies and have found that PHP4.x and J2EE 1.x seem to be leaders in this department. I would like some help in comparing the pros and cons of each technology. In one article you get one set of information, and in another you get something else. During this process I have noticed that most of the major players seem to be moving to the J2EE API. Scalability, and capability of the languages seem to be a major focus when being talked about. I have used PHP4 and like its simplicity, but have to wonder why there is such hype around the J2EE platform. Are there significant functions that can only be achieved in a language like Java2 that can't be done with a Language like PHP 4.x. Or is it a technical foobar to compare an OO language to a scripting Language. Another key to this is the fact that many of the open source technologies seem to be moving to the Commercial realm. This kind of puts things on an even playing field when choosing an open source technology that needs commercial products when competing with other licensed technologies. Your Comments would be appreciated. I don’t want to tackle this from a religious war perspective, but a pragmatic one.

Thanks!