Skip to: Content | Navigation | Footer
Dr. Blip's PC-Doctor Blog
#1 - Andy Koch 2007-07-30 11:03 -
Pick Ruby or Python, PHP is dead.
Also, Ruby and Python come with interactive consoles that make doing simple tasks easy. You don't even have to write a script file, just fire up the console and run the command. Even more instant gratification.
PHP, btw, doesn't have a good console. I've seen it advertise one, and I've tried to use it, but it doesn't work very easily.
But I'm giving away my next post about why PHP is facing technological Darwinism.
Another comment, "Simple to learn" isn't a universal rule. I'd say they're simple to get started with, but languages like Ruby and Python (again not PHP) have some advanced features that once mastered make your scripted code very powerful and quite beautiful.
FYI, I just got my Erlang book. That should be cool
#2 - fred.bertsch 2007-07-30 11:17 -
I'd say you should decide what you want to do, and then pick the language that has the most support for what you want to do. If you want to automate some tasks in Word, then Visual Basic might be a good option. If you want to make your Firefox browser do something automatically, then JavaScript is probably a good bet.
For anything else, Ruby and Python are good options. They are easy to play with. ![]()
#3 - Chris Hill said:
2007-07-30 11:20 -
Well, I was proud of myself for learning PHP until Andy came along and rained on my parade. Thanks! ![]()
#4 - hector 2007-07-30 11:24 -
PHP Dead??? I'm not sure. Yes, is not the coolest thing right now and it's main developers don't all have MacBook Pros, but is anything but dead. It still is the fastest and most popular way nowadays to get dynamic content on a generic web host provider.
Besides, PHP Eats Rails for Breakfast ![]()
#5 - Andy Koch 2007-07-30 12:32 -
ok, that should probably read "PHP is Dead *to me*", but hyperbole always gets better ratings
agree that PHP is popular, but now the discussion is headed towards web sites and then it's not fair to compare PHP vs. Ruby/Python/ etc. PHP is indeed easiest to make one-off web pages, or small simple web apps. I always like to say, it's easy to make a bad web site.
But take a large complex web app, given PHP and choose your framework versus Ruby / Rails framework and I'll bet money that Rails wins. Of course one could likely never do such a study objectively, so you really just have developer experience.
And in my experience, Ruby/Python code is more elegant, easier to read, more maintainable and simply more pleasurable to work with than a comparable task in PHP.
The edge PHP currently has it's that it will occassionally run faster than Ruby. This, however, I beleive to be a fleeting advantage as the Ruby community continues to gain critical mass. Python almost always beats PHP for speed.
#6 - Chris Hill said:
2007-07-31 08:25 -
I haven't used Ruby or Python, but judging by the number of high-profile apps that continue to use PHP, I'd say it's going to be a LONG time before it's dead. Wordpress is probably one of the most popular blogging apps these days and it's foundation is PHP/MySQL.
It also seems that most forum applications, including ours (http://www.pcdoctor-community.com/forum) -- SMF -- are built on PHP as well.
So yes, while it may be dead to you, it certainly is going to be around for many years to come.
#7 - hector 2007-07-31 08:34 -
Andy, yes. I'll give that one to you. PHP is kind of dead to me too, but If I had to do something "quick-n-dirty" I'd definitely use it. Now though, I think I would definitely take a look at GWT for anything significant I'd have to write for the web.
#8 - Chris Hill said:
2007-07-31 09:54 -
Which is exactly why I think PHP is still alive today. I think "quick-n-dirty" is the 21st century requirement for many web apps, especially for open-source applications that need wide spread appeal and use. If Wordpress used something other than PHP, I think the plugin library would be a fraction of the size it is now. PHP certainly has it's place on the web.
#9 - fred.bertsch 2007-07-31 11:37 -
GWT is designed for something very specific. It's designed for complex web apps like gmail and google maps. The idea is to make it possible to write an application that's as complex as a desktop application, but to put it in a web browser.
Quick and dirty is not what it's about.
© 2010 PC-Doctor, Inc. | About this site | Contact | RSS | Back to top
Design by Andreas Viklund | Serendipity Template by Carl






