Perl vs PHP

[Jan]

Perl or PHP: Which is better and easy to learn?

[Peter]

Off the two I think PHP is slightly easier to learn from a web design point of view. PHP pages are constructed like HTML pages, with standard HTML markup. You can find the detailed info here <b>mediacollege.com/internet/perl/perl-vs-php.html</b>

[kev woodman]

I'd agree and say PHP. Performance for PHP is good, there are loads of resources available, it's easy to learn and if you use PHP 5 it is fully object-oriented.

[paul]

For the newbie those having knowledge of HTML, it is easier to learn PHP as it is closer that they already know.

[sanderson]

The major plus point of php over perl is that php is designed for scripting the web and perl is designed to do many things including web and might because of this got complicated. You can say it is perl’s flexibility or complexity, which makes it easier to write code. That same makes it harder to read for another author or coder, where php has a defined format which allows flexibility. Php is easier to integrate into current html. And it has almost all ‘good’ functionality of perl: constructs, syntax and so on, which are simpler than perl. As perl is a very tried and true language, it's presence in the industry is much older than php, but you can see php is growing very fast. Php is the choicest one for web for it's simplicity.

[paul]

Seems Perl & PHP are cousin, however PHP has all good functionality of perl; constructs, syntax and so on making it less complicated than perl. Btw PHP seems maturing very fast IMO.

[kev woodman]

As a PHP coder I have to take issue with some of Sanderson's comments. There is nothing about PHP which maked it easier to read, update or maintain than Perl. In fact just the opposite - PHP is a very unstructured language and a lack of coding standards plus a lot of amatuer coders means that much of the code written using it is a horrible procedural mess. If you want structure and well defined, easily maintained code then you shoudl look to Ruby in Rails or a PHP framework like Cake.

PHP is only simple in as much as it does not contain some of the complex language constructs found in C or even Java. Any programming language gets complicated once you start building complex logic structures and PHP, particularly PHP5 is no
different.

I like PHP for a number of reasons but it's simplicity is not one of them.

[Peter]

PHP may not be that simple and easy to learn but once you get the hang of it, you can grow to learn advanced concepts such as Object Oriented Design, inheritance, type-hinting, exceptions, class abstraction, overloading and reflection. I think Ruby on Rails is easier to learn as compared to PHP and with Ruby on Rails one can have a good foundation for both system level scripting and web development.

[Administrator]

Perl has lost its popularity recently and very few developers can be found working on perl. Perl is a great scripting language and I wish we could do something for its betterment.

I have strong reason to call perl to be better than php as the functionalities that you can achieve with perl cant be done with php. php is just for basic web designing and development. You need to know perl to make something happening and different from others.

[kev woodman]

**Rolls Up Sleeves And Gets Ready For Fighting**

'Just for basic Web designing and development' ? Wash your mouth out Admin

PHP5 is a fully formed object-oriented language. It has some advanced concepts (such as garbage collection) which are missing from languages such as C++. Perl is a nice language but I can tell you from personal experience that PHP can be used to build complex software projects that scale remarkably well. As an example, the project I'm currently working on has to support numerous business logic operations on over 100,000 records where each record can consist of over 50 individual data elements. The business logic includes interacting with a number of Web services over different protocols and algorithms wich incorporate elements of artificial intelligence (particularly contextual analysis). In all honesty we didn't choose to develop in PHP (it was part of the project spec) but we haven't found it to be a handicap either.

[paul]

IMHO, php5 is much better for web-based apps, while Perl is excellent on the command-line, there is always pros & cons of every language either way you have to accept, say for an example- Perl has lexical scope & dynamic scope while PHP doesn't have these.

[sanderson]

This will be never ending debate on Perl vs PHP or say PHP vs Perl. Of course perl is very strong, robust one with more maturity than PHP. But for a newbie? is more complicated for web development. But for experienced programmers? - One of the Linux Administrator on the same subject said that he had used perl for many years and using PHP too since few years back. But he says out of 10, 9 times his choice is perl. The reason one can easily find out, because he knows perl just like his back of hand. Though you will agree that Perl is harder than Javascript. Now PHP is another language. In the world of programming PHP and Perl are competitors. The webmaster has a choice and uses one of the language according to the project. But for programmers, particularly web designers, as they are learning PHP as the first language, they will be inclined to use their favourite one – in this case PHP. Because as one can said it is SLIGHTLY easier to learn from a webdesign point of view. Either language will be adequate, it depends on lots of factors, users! Of course favaourite one is PHP.

[janderson]

I am currently looking to find a Web Developer with Perl, XML and HTML for a role in Manchester but it's proving difficult. Why do companies still use perl if as you all say php seems better? BTW if you guys know anyone wanting a permanent job then let me know!

[kev woodman]

Don't know of anyone off hand but I'll ask around. Perl isn't as widely used as a lot of other languages which is probably why you're struggling to find someone. It's not the case that PHP is necessarily better than Perl, in fact I use PHP every day and there are bits of it that annoy the hell out of me, it's just that each has its advantages.

[ouahabix]

I'm still sticking with PHP, but the only thing I hope to be implemented and possible in PHP is to use new DLLs' APIS without compiling the whole PHP core to be able to recognize them , when this is very possible in PERL!