JavaScript vs PHP vs Perl

Overview

PHP

Stacks147.4K

Followers82.9K

Votes4.6K

GitHub Stars39.6K

Forks8.0K

Perl

Stacks4.3K

Followers935

Votes575

GitHub Stars2.2K

Forks602

JavaScript

Stacks392.2K

Followers284.0K

Votes8.1K

JavaScript vs PHP vs Perl: What are the differences?

Introduction:

JavaScript, PHP, and Perl are all programming languages commonly used for web development. While they have some similarities, there are key differences that set them apart. In this article, we will explore six of the key differences between JavaScript, PHP, and Perl.

Syntax and Purpose: JavaScript is primarily used for creating dynamic behavior on web pages, adding interactivity and enhancing user experience. It is a client-side scripting language that runs on the user's web browser. PHP, on the other hand, is a server-side scripting language used for developing server-side web applications and generating dynamic web content. Perl, like PHP, is also a server-side scripting language but is known for its versatility and wide range of applications beyond web development, including system administration and text processing.
Language Age and Community Support: JavaScript was created in 1995 and has a large and active community of developers. It is supported by all modern web browsers, making it a widely adopted language. PHP was created in 1994 and is specifically designed for web development. It has a large community and extensive documentation. Perl, the oldest of the three, was created in 1987 and has a dedicated community with a strong focus on code reusability and efficient development.
Programming Paradigm: JavaScript is primarily an object-oriented language, which means it follows the principles of encapsulation, inheritance, and polymorphism. It also supports functional programming paradigms. PHP, while mostly procedural, also supports object-oriented programming. Perl, on the other hand, is a highly flexible language that supports multiple programming paradigms, including procedural, object-oriented, and functional.
Deployment and Hosting: JavaScript is executed on the client-side, within the user's web browser, eliminating the need for server-side hosting. PHP and Perl, being server-side languages, require a web server with PHP or Perl interpreter installed for execution. This makes hosting a PHP or Perl application more complex and requires a server with appropriate configuration.
Integration with Databases: JavaScript primarily relies on client-side databases such as IndexedDB and WebSQL, which are limited in storage capacity and functionality. PHP and Perl have better integration with server-side databases such as MySQL, PostgreSQL, and SQLite. They provide more advanced database manipulation capabilities, making them suitable for building data-intensive web applications.
Error Handling: In JavaScript, errors are often encountered during runtime and can be handled using try-catch blocks. PHP and Perl, being server-side languages, have more robust error-handling mechanisms that provide better control over exception handling and debugging, allowing developers to effectively identify and fix errors.

In summary, JavaScript is a client-side scripting language used for web interactivity, while PHP and Perl are server-side scripting languages primarily used for web application development. JavaScript has a strong focus on the front-end, PHP excels in server-side development, and Perl offers versatility beyond web development.

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Advice on PHP, Perl, JavaScript

Nathan

Fullstack Developer at Alpsify

Sep 23, 2020

Needs advice

Am I the only one to think that libraries like Bootstrap, Vuetify, Materialize, Foundation are too much sometimes ?

Most of the time you are loading all the library and using 10% of it. And on that 10% you are modifying 90% of it.

I feel like using grid and pure CSS / JS are enough and cleaner.

101k views101k

Comments

saisakshith

Nov 1, 2020

Needs adviceon

Java EE

JavaScript

Hi, I'm looking to learn Java EE and JavaScript.... but confused about exactly the difference between J2EE and JavaScript.....are both interconnected or different??? And if I want to learn both, should I learn JavaScript first and then touch J2EE or learn J2EE first and then JavaScript??.... please suggest

162k views162k

Comments

William

Senior Platform Engineer at ABN AMRO

Jul 17, 2020

Decided

Telegram Messenger has frameworks for most known languages, which makes easier for anyone to integrate with them. I started with Golang and soon found that those frameworks are not up to date, not to mention my experience testing on Golang is also mixed due to how their testing tool works. The natural runner-up was JS, which I'm ditching in favor of TS to make a strongly typed code, proper tests and documentation for broader usage. TypeScript allows fast prototyping and can prevent problems during code phase, given that your IDE of choice has support for a language server, and build phase. Pairing it with lint tools also allows honing code before it even hits the repositories.

409k views409k

Comments

Detailed Comparison

PHP	Perl	JavaScript
Fast, flexible and pragmatic, PHP powers everything from your blog to the most popular websites in the world.	Perl is a general-purpose programming language originally developed for text manipulation and now used for a wide range of tasks including system administration, web development, network programming, GUI development, and more.	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.
Statistics
GitHub Stars 39.6K	GitHub Stars 2.2K	GitHub Stars -
GitHub Forks 8.0K	GitHub Forks 602	GitHub Forks -
Stacks 147.4K	Stacks 4.3K	Stacks 392.2K
Followers 82.9K	Followers 935	Followers 284.0K
Votes 4.6K	Votes 575	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 No routing system	Pros 72 Lots of libraries 66 Open source 61 Text processing 54 Powerful 49 Unix-style Cons 4 Messy $/@/% syntax 3 No exception handling 2 Bad OO support 2 No OS threads 2 "1;"	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	No integrations available	No integrations available

What are some alternatives to PHP, Perl, JavaScript?

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 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 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

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 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# (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 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 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

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 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.

Related Comparisons

JavaScript vs PHP vs Perl: What are the differences?

Introduction:

Syntax and Purpose: JavaScript is primarily used for creating dynamic behavior on web pages, adding interactivity and enhancing user experience. It is a client-side scripting language that runs on the user's web browser. PHP, on the other hand, is a server-side scripting language used for developing server-side web applications and generating dynamic web content. Perl, like PHP, is also a server-side scripting language but is known for its versatility and wide range of applications beyond web development, including system administration and text processing.
Language Age and Community Support: JavaScript was created in 1995 and has a large and active community of developers. It is supported by all modern web browsers, making it a widely adopted language. PHP was created in 1994 and is specifically designed for web development. It has a large community and extensive documentation. Perl, the oldest of the three, was created in 1987 and has a dedicated community with a strong focus on code reusability and efficient development.
Programming Paradigm: JavaScript is primarily an object-oriented language, which means it follows the principles of encapsulation, inheritance, and polymorphism. It also supports functional programming paradigms. PHP, while mostly procedural, also supports object-oriented programming. Perl, on the other hand, is a highly flexible language that supports multiple programming paradigms, including procedural, object-oriented, and functional.
Deployment and Hosting: JavaScript is executed on the client-side, within the user's web browser, eliminating the need for server-side hosting. PHP and Perl, being server-side languages, require a web server with PHP or Perl interpreter installed for execution. This makes hosting a PHP or Perl application more complex and requires a server with appropriate configuration.
Integration with Databases: JavaScript primarily relies on client-side databases such as IndexedDB and WebSQL, which are limited in storage capacity and functionality. PHP and Perl have better integration with server-side databases such as MySQL, PostgreSQL, and SQLite. They provide more advanced database manipulation capabilities, making them suitable for building data-intensive web applications.
Error Handling: In JavaScript, errors are often encountered during runtime and can be handled using try-catch blocks. PHP and Perl, being server-side languages, have more robust error-handling mechanisms that provide better control over exception handling and debugging, allowing developers to effectively identify and fix errors.

JavaScript vs PHP vs Perl

Overview