RE: Re (tilly) 1: Why should I use PHP after this?

[arturo]

Plus the fact that the language won't grow with you...

Not sure what you mean by this ... if you're talking about the extensibility of PHP vs. Perl via modules, PHP has made major strides along this road lately. Check out the articles on phpbuilder.com about PEAR (roughly, CPAN for PHP complete with javadoc-like functionality).

"He's got about as much personality as a loaf of bread" -- Wally Pleasant, She's in love with a Geek

[tilly]

I mean that PHP cannot fit as comfortably into as many roles and as many programming styles as Perl. It may be improving, but Perl is today where PHP wants to be and isn't.

BTW for my stating it that way you can blame merlyn and his, Training wheels without the bike comment. :-)

[Malach]

Um.... php is a web scripting language. You *can* make it do perlish command line type stuff, but it's not really designed for that. I don't think the developers of php are trying to make it grow up to be/replace perl.

For myself, I find php faster to develop dynamic webpages in than I do perl (note the "for myself" at the beginning there.... this is undoubtedly a mater of experience). I use perl for everything else I do (ie that doesn't output to the web).

I hope that php can grow to be as powerful and flexible as perl is... within its own arena (dynamic web pages). I'd like to see some more perlish flexibility. I'd like to see more perlish compatibility (of code). Why bash the differences?... embrace them, and utilise them.