Re: perl vs. php

[Perl Mouse]

are there advantages over doing it in php over perl?

Yes, it makes your boss happy. But that's not a question you should ask here. And you shouldn't ask it on a PHP forum either. Not that I don't think their answers would be biased - they aren't useful for you. You don't want to do it in PHP - your boss does. So, ask you boss what the advantages are. It doesn't matter whether what he thinks are advantages are really advantages, but as long as he thinks they are, those are the arguments you have to deal with.

Which is more secure?

Neither. It's an irrelevant question. Programs are secure or not. You can write secure programs in any language (and it's difficult in all of them), and you can write insecure programs in any language (and that's surprisingly easy).

Will I have a difficult time since I've done almost no php?

How can we know? Some people pick up new languages in a matter of hours. Others are stuck in the first language they've learned, and will never become good in any other.

You're not asking the right question - and you're not asking them to the right people either.

[saberworks]

Neither. It's an irrelevant question. Programs are secure or not. You can write secure programs in any language (and it's difficult in all of them), and you can write insecure programs in any language (and that's surprisingly easy).

That's not entirely true. Look at PHPs track record for PHPs security itself, not programs built with PHP. There have been numerous web worms and other types of malicious programs which are only viable because of functions in PHP itself that are vulnerable. They generally patch PHP pretty fast, but upgrading your own installation can be a headache when you have to do it every other week.

[emazep]

Neither. It's an irrelevant question. Programs are secure or not. You can write secure programs in any language (and it's difficult in all of them), and you can write insecure programs in any language (and that's surprisingly easy).

That's not completely true (at least in this case.)
Contrary to Perl, PHP doesn't have a taint mode, which is a deficiency of the language.
Granted, you can still write secure programs without using the taint mode, but it can be much harder to detect the vulnerabilities of your code.

Ciao,
Emanuele.

[Perl Mouse]

It's still very easy to write insecure programs that have tainting enabled. The fact that Perl has a tainting option doesn't make Perl secure. It just gives the programmer one more piece of rope (either to hang himself, or to use well).