Perl of PHP - What do you prefer?

ghenry · #1 23rd August 2004, 09:21 AM

I am starting to love Perl.

jimbo · #2 23rd August 2004, 03:39 PM

I really like PHP. Object Oriented and fast, terrific database integration and lot's of good documentation and scripts available. I've been doing all my web programming as well as starting to use it for scripting and haven't found any limitations. I hear you can also do GUI app with it now. I've got to give that a try.

***ewdi*** · #3 23rd August 2004, 03:42 PM

i like php but for shell scripts i rather use perl, perl have more control however need to be careful

because that control could be double edge sword

zylr · #4 23rd August 2004, 03:49 PM

Python.
Its a scripting language like Perl, but it is cleaner, has better OO, has really simple syntax and lots of packages that come with it.
Check it out, its already in Fedora. Type: python at a prompt.
For docs and a really good tutorial, visit the offical Python webpage: www.python.org

earobinson111 · #5 23rd August 2004, 03:52 PM

I like python alos, Yet a good programer knows that each language has its pro's and con's so i some times use all 3 of them, but mostly python!!!

crackers · #6 24th August 2004, 04:30 AM

I tend to avoid Perl when possible - I've been subjected to the gawd-awful obfuscation that you can do with it and some of it just made my head hurt - a lot! For the large majority of what I need to do via shells, I just use plain ol' Bash. Right now I don't have a "middle-ground" - but from what I've seen I'd probably lean towards Python. If I can get over code blocks being defined by indentation. BLECH!

zylr · #7 24th August 2004, 03:42 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by crackers

I've been subjected to the gawd-awful obfuscation that you can do with it and some of it just made my head hurt - a lot!

Yup, thats Perl!
But you get so used to the $_ and some other operators. It makes it easy, but in a bad way... A really bad way!

pigpen · #8 24th August 2004, 03:50 PM

I use PHP for web development but also for command line scripting when bash gets too complicated.
Although I'm pretty familiar with PHP by now, I'd like to know more PERL and am really eager to learn Python
(especially when it comes to GUI programming - pygtk comes to mind).

Mat · #9 24th August 2004, 04:36 PM

IMO, i've never seen a "clean" (read: easy to understand) perl script.. I much more prefer tcl.. can be used in cgi's as well and is just lovely

zjimward · #10 25th August 2004, 01:39 AM

It's always a matter of taste. I use PHP for web development. For scripting I mostly use Python. I've used perl and written a lot of bash. Scripting and Languages all have good and bad. My rule, is write it so some one else can maintain it and don't go for the tricks to make yourself look smart. It'll byte you in the core dump every time.

crackers · #11 25th August 2004, 04:30 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by zjimward

is write it so some one else can maintain it and don't go for the tricks to make yourself look smart.

Write COMMENTS!!!! That means it also won't get you when you're trying to figure out whatinhell it does 6 months later...

zjimward · #12 25th August 2004, 08:11 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by crackers

Write COMMENTS!!!! That means it also won't get you when you're trying to figure out whatinhell it does 6 months later...

Comments are great too. Also use variables that make sense and not just x, x, z. Nothing like a loop that contains a = 1 to 500. Much better when it is nEmployees = 1 to 500. Then some one actually knows what it's counting.

crackers · #13 26th August 2004, 04:56 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by zjimward

Nothing like a loop that contains a = 1 to 500. Much better when it is nEmployees = 1 to 500. Then some one actually knows what it's counting.

Er, sometimes. Some of us old fogeys still use i,j,k,l for loops - especially when it's "just a loop" and the counter really has no significance beyond being used in a loop.

Now, five extra points to anyone under 40 years of age that can tell the rest of the class where the "i,j,k,l" idiom came from...

ghenry · #14 27th August 2004, 09:50 AM

If anyone wants a yourname@perl.me.uk just let me know. Just bought the domain and hosting a few things on there.

ChrisMUC · #15 27th August 2004, 12:57 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ghenry

I am starting to love Perl.

Well, you cannot compare Perl and PHP at all. They've got completely different aims.
Perl is a scripting language for every kind of text processing/manipulation, while PHP
was developed for dynamic webpage generation.

I like perl pretty much (and I also like PHP for webpage generations), I even once wrote a large app with GUI and database backend, but to be honest - coding that in perl is a bit masochistic, and today, I'd definitely not recommend it any more. Maybe, it's because I'm converted to Java.