I think there are a couple of myths that need to be cleared up from that post.
First, the idea that PDF manipulation and secure payment modules "don't work very well" in Perl. If one has had difficulty in making the modules work for them, it does not necessarily mean that the module is at fault - in some cases it might be, but typically I've found that when a module isn't working for me, I've usually missed something. Second, the idea that most of the new work can be found in PHP and ASP is not necessarily the case. The tech industry has taken a hit over the past few years, and if you're looking at the job boards like Monster, maybe most of what you *see* is slanted toward Microsoft technology. PHP and ASP are pushed at corporations because somebody at a high level in the chain has been told these are the widgets they should use. Trust me, I worked for one of the major telecom players for 6 years, and I've seen how the buzzwords work themselves into the hiring process. However, in my business (I deal with small to medium-sized companies), they're not concerned about what technology I use as long as it works. So far, the language that makes most of my projects work is Perl. -----Original Message----- From: Octavian Rasnita [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Wednesday, February 26, 2003 1:38 PM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: Re: PHP vs Perl I think the reason why PHP is used more and more much than Perl is that for CGI related programs it is much simpler to use than perl. For example it has a set of libraries for the most used functions in a CGI program, for example SSL support, a module for reading and creating PDF files, modules for accessing some payments operators for shopping carts, etc. Those modules can be created in perl, but even if some of those modules exists for perl, they don't work very well. I've tried to use the modules for creating a PDF document under Windows, but with no success. It is pretty hard to install some of the perl modules under Windows because most of them need to be compiled, need a compiler to be installed, etc. With PHP it is much simpler to work and I can see this even though I don't know PHP at all.... yet. The motivation for new perl learners is not very big because most of the jobs can be found in PHP/ASP and only after that in perl/Cold Fusion. I hope Perl 6 will have much more standard modules and the modules from CPAN will be able to be installed without compiling them with a local compiler. We should keep in mind that even if the most web servers are running under Unix/Linux, most computer users and possibly web developers are working under Windows and the CPAN modules should be all compatible with Windows also, and not only with Linux. Teddy, Teddy's Center: http://teddy.fcc.ro/ Email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] ----- Original Message ----- From: "Todd W." <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Thursday, July 24, 2003 11:26 PM Subject: Re: PHP vs Perl <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote in message news:[EMAIL PROTECTED] > > > One of the coolest answers is at: > > > > http://us2.php.net/manual/en/faq.languages.php#faq.languages.perl > > > > where it notes that Perl is a complicated language that comes from > > a time before the web.... whereas PHP was built specifically for > > the web side of the game... Great! > > > > Interesting read, though this still rings true for me "PHP is easier to integrate into existing HTML than Perl." They see it as a bonus, I see it as a hinderance for a multiple person operation. Situation.......... > I was thinking the same thing when I read that. Swap the first occurence of 'PHP' with the first occurence of 'Perl' in the paragraph and you have a perfectly formulated reason of why you should use perl over PHP !!??!! It says, "PHP has a less confusing and stricter format without losing flexibility." Which is fine for printing environment variables to a browser, but the second you try to do something like implement a MVC pattern ( which is the way one is supposed to develop distrbuted applications, but is inherently anti-PHP ) the language proper becomes as flexible as a 12 inch piece of 2x4, so you're left with nothing but a prop or a VERY crude hammer =0). I went to a consuting firm, and they had this app with 50 different files of ASP+HTML+SQL, all mixed together, and they said they wanted a pocket IE interface to the app. I said okay, the first thing we do here is right click -> delete on the parent folder. They said no. I asked them how they wanted me to do it, and they wanted a new folder with the same files except for this ASP outputs the PIE interface. I'll pass. But you know, to each his own. During the opening talk at YAPC::NA this year Conway had slide that contained a list of 10 or so bullets explaining why perl 5 OO is good. And on the very next slide used the exact same 10 bullet list to illustrate why perl 5 OO is bad!?! I think this boils down to Wall's philosophy of post-modernism. I'm no sociologist, and what I've learned of post-modernisim has been from Wall, but I understand, post-modernism as "this AND that" as opposed to "this OR that". And I agree with him. perl 5 OO boils down to a builtin ( namely, bless() ) that tells a reference that all subroutines in the package named in the second argument are its methods. Now one can write some pretty cool code with that, using a fraction of the disk space that the C# implementation would require. But try translating that to a monkey coder, or that high schooler you mentioned that is happy getting paid in soda. Why become a real computer scientist and learn about polymorphisim or hashing algorithms when you can crack another mountain dew and pound on a keyboard for awhile. So what if the development time is 6 months over schedule. Just add another semester of VC++ 6 and, voila, a shiny piece of paper declaring the worlds newest computer scientist... it dosen't matter that they never did finish their "quick sort" implementation back in intro. Im no economist either, but I believe if our computer scientists would have delivered during last decades tech boom, we would still be riding the wave. I mean, come on, is Napster _really_ the only technology we got out of the 90's? And if it truly was, why couldnt we sift a killer B2B app out of it? Mabye its our fault for a different reason. I mean, shoudn't we have stood up and said, "Hey, theres really no point in investing a billion dollars in something like bluejeans.com.?" Those last two paragraphs were total rant, and I probably have no idea what I'm talking about, but they are getting posted anyway ;0) But back to the ( or at least my ) concept of postmodernism. PHP has been a great advocate for the web and is truly maturing very quickly. I doubt if the Apache Foundation would have incubated it if it weren't. My latest PHP interpreter even compiled with built in GD support, and really, its pretty neat. And with web services ( possibly ) becoming the ultimate postmodern software concept, I really dont care what its written in. Todd W. -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] For additional commands, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] For additional commands, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
