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  1. Stackups
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  5. Hack vs JavaScript vs PHP

Hack vs JavaScript vs PHP

OverviewDecisionsComparisonAlternatives

Overview

PHP
PHP
Stacks147.4K
Followers82.9K
Votes4.6K
GitHub Stars39.6K
Forks8.0K
Hack
Hack
Stacks818
Followers169
Votes29
GitHub Stars18.5K
Forks3.1K
JavaScript
JavaScript
Stacks392.2K
Followers284.0K
Votes8.1K

Hack vs JavaScript vs PHP: What are the differences?

# Introduction
Below are the key differences between Hack, JavaScript, and PHP.

1. **Type System**: Hack is a statically typed language, whereas JavaScript and PHP are dynamically typed. In Hack, variables must be declared with a specific data type, while JavaScript and PHP do not require explicit type declarations.
2. **Execution Environment**: JavaScript and PHP are typically used for client-side and server-side scripting, respectively, while Hack is primarily used at Facebook for backend services and is not as commonly used for general web development.
3. **Performance**: Hack offers better performance compared to PHP due to its statically typed nature, while JavaScript's performance can vary depending on the implementation and browser.
4. **Syntax**: Hack has a more similar syntax to PHP but includes type annotations for static typing, whereas JavaScript has a different syntax with features like arrow functions and objects as first-class citizens.
5. **Tooling**: Hack comes with a robust toolset, including a type checker and automatic refactoring tools, which can help improve code quality and maintainability, while PHP and JavaScript have fewer built-in tools for these purposes.
6. **Error Handling**: Hack provides better error checking and type safety at compile time, reducing the chances of runtime errors, while PHP and JavaScript may encounter more runtime errors due to their dynamic nature.

In Summary, the key differences between Hack, JavaScript, and PHP lie in their type systems, execution environments, performance, syntax, tooling, and error handling capabilities.

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Advice on PHP, Hack, JavaScript

Octavian
Octavian

Software Engineer

May 26, 2020

Decided

Both PHP and Python are free but when it comes to web development PHP wins for sure. There is no doubt that Python is a powerful language but it is not optimal for web. PHP has issues... of course; but so does any other language.

Another reason I chose PHP is for community - it has one of the most resourceful communities from the internet and for a good reason: it evolved with the language itself.

The fact that OOP evolved so much in PHP makes me keep it for good :)

377k views377k
Comments
Davit
Davit

Apr 11, 2020

Needs advice

Hi everyone, I have just started to study web development, so I'm very new in this field. I would like to ask you which tools are most updated and good to use for getting a job in medium-big company. Front-end is basically not changing by time so much (as I understood by researching some info), so my question is about back-end tools. Which backend tools are most updated and requested by medium-big companies (I am searching for immediate job possibly)?

Thank you in advance Davit

390k views390k
Comments
Muhamed
Muhamed

Apr 28, 2020

Needs adviceonPythonPythonJavaScriptJavaScriptDjangoDjango

I am currently learning web development with Python and JavaScript course by CS50 Harvard university. It covers python, Flask, Django, SQL, Travis CI, javascript,HTML ,CSS and more. I am very interested in Flutter app development. Can I know what is the difference between learning these above-mentioned frameworks vs learning flutter directly? I am planning to learn flutter so that I can do both web development and app development. Are there any perks of learning these frameworks before flutter?

737k views737k
Comments

Detailed Comparison

PHP
PHP
Hack
Hack
JavaScript
JavaScript

Fast, flexible and pragmatic, PHP powers everything from your blog to the most popular websites in the world.

Hack provides instantaneous type checking via a local server that watches the filesystem. It typically runs in less than 200 milliseconds, making it easy to integrate into your development workflow without introducing a noticeable delay.

JavaScript is most known as the scripting language for Web pages, but used in many non-browser environments as well such as node.js or Apache CouchDB. It is a prototype-based, multi-paradigm scripting language that is dynamic,and supports object-oriented, imperative, and functional programming styles.

-
Fast Development; Type Checking; Built for HHVM; Type Annotations; Generics; Lambdas
-
Statistics
GitHub Stars
39.6K
GitHub Stars
18.5K
GitHub Stars
-
GitHub Forks
8.0K
GitHub Forks
3.1K
GitHub Forks
-
Stacks
147.4K
Stacks
818
Stacks
392.2K
Followers
82.9K
Followers
169
Followers
284.0K
Votes
4.6K
Votes
29
Votes
8.1K
Pros & Cons
Pros
  • 954
    Large community
  • 820
    Open source
  • 767
    Easy deployment
  • 488
    Great frameworks
  • 387
    The best glue on the web
Cons
  • 21
    So easy to learn, good practices are hard to find
  • 16
    Inconsistent API
  • 8
    Fragmented community
  • 6
    Not secure
  • 3
    Hard to debug
Pros
  • 6
    Open source
  • 6
    Interoperates seamlessly with php
  • 5
    Backed by facebook
  • 4
    HHVM
  • 2
    Great documentation
Pros
  • 1670
    Can be used on frontend/backend
  • 1497
    It's everywhere
  • 1163
    Lots of great frameworks
  • 899
    Fast
  • 746
    Light weight
Cons
  • 24
    A constant moving target, too much churn
  • 20
    Horribly inconsistent
  • 16
    Javascript is the New PHP
  • 9
    No ability to monitor memory utilitization
  • 8
    Shows Zero output in case of ANY error
Integrations
Laravel
Laravel
HHVM (HipHop Virtual Machine)
HHVM (HipHop Virtual Machine)
No integrations available

What are some alternatives to PHP, Hack, JavaScript?

Python

Python

Python is a general purpose programming language created by Guido Van Rossum. Python is most praised for its elegant syntax and readable code, if you are just beginning your programming career python suits you best.

Ruby

Ruby

Ruby is a language of careful balance. Its creator, Yukihiro “Matz” Matsumoto, blended parts of his favorite languages (Perl, Smalltalk, Eiffel, Ada, and Lisp) to form a new language that balanced functional programming with imperative programming.

Java

Java

Java is a programming language and computing platform first released by Sun Microsystems in 1995. There are lots of applications and websites that will not work unless you have Java installed, and more are created every day. Java is fast, secure, and reliable. From laptops to datacenters, game consoles to scientific supercomputers, cell phones to the Internet, Java is everywhere!

Golang

Golang

Go is expressive, concise, clean, and efficient. Its concurrency mechanisms make it easy to write programs that get the most out of multicore and networked machines, while its novel type system enables flexible and modular program construction. Go compiles quickly to machine code yet has the convenience of garbage collection and the power of run-time reflection. It's a fast, statically typed, compiled language that feels like a dynamically typed, interpreted language.

HTML5

HTML5

HTML5 is a core technology markup language of the Internet used for structuring and presenting content for the World Wide Web. As of October 2014 this is the final and complete fifth revision of the HTML standard of the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C). The previous version, HTML 4, was standardised in 1997.

C#

C#

C# (pronounced "See Sharp") is a simple, modern, object-oriented, and type-safe programming language. C# has its roots in the C family of languages and will be immediately familiar to C, C++, Java, and JavaScript programmers.

Scala

Scala

Scala is an acronym for “Scalable Language”. This means that Scala grows with you. You can play with it by typing one-line expressions and observing the results. But you can also rely on it for large mission critical systems, as many companies, including Twitter, LinkedIn, or Intel do. To some, Scala feels like a scripting language. Its syntax is concise and low ceremony; its types get out of the way because the compiler can infer them.

Elixir

Elixir

Elixir leverages the Erlang VM, known for running low-latency, distributed and fault-tolerant systems, while also being successfully used in web development and the embedded software domain.

Swift

Swift

Writing code is interactive and fun, the syntax is concise yet expressive, and apps run lightning-fast. Swift is ready for your next iOS and OS X project — or for addition into your current app — because Swift code works side-by-side with Objective-C.

Rust

Rust

Rust is a systems programming language that combines strong compile-time correctness guarantees with fast performance. It improves upon the ideas of other systems languages like C++ by providing guaranteed memory safety (no crashes, no data races) and complete control over the lifecycle of memory.

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