[plug] Perl vs PHP

[Christian]

On Thu, Dec 14, 2000 at 03:34:37AM -0000, Jason :) wrote:
 
> I don't know much about Perl at all, but PHP scripts can be used for more 
> than web-scripting. I've seen people use the CGI version of PHP, for example, 
> to run scripts in a cron job that perform tasks such as backing up databases.
> And who's to say Perl will be around in five years time? Anyway, what's 
> stopping someone from building a PHP parser into a [new-predominant-
> application-architecture] server to produce dynamic XML/whatever the latest 
> format is? If Perl could be made to work with it I'm sure PHP could. From 
> what I know they're both just scripting languages.

I'm not experienced with PHP but my understanding is that it is not a
full programming language the way Perl is.  Can you write GUI
applications in PHP?  Does it have a POSIX interface?  And so on.  Perl
is a fully fledged programming language while PHP is a web scripting
language that can do non-web things as a bit of a novelty on the side.

> As for the original question, use whichever you are most comfortable with and 
> whichever gets the job done best. It really depends on what it is you're 
> building.

In this case the person who asked the original question isn't (yet)
comfortable with either.  I still think that learning Perl is a more
generally useful skill than PHP and thus more valuable in the long run.