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  1. Stackups
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  5. PHP vs Perl

PHP vs Perl

OverviewDecisionsComparisonAlternatives

Overview

PHP
PHP
Stacks147.4K
Followers82.9K
Votes4.6K
GitHub Stars39.6K
Forks8.0K
Perl
Perl
Stacks4.3K
Followers935
Votes575
GitHub Stars2.2K
Forks602

PHP vs Perl: What are the differences?

Comparison between PHP and Perl

PHP and Perl are both popular programming languages used for web development. While they share some similarities, there are key differences that set them apart. Here is a comparison of PHP and Perl:

  1. Syntax: One of the primary differences between PHP and Perl is their syntax. PHP follows a syntax similar to C, making it more familiar to programmers who are already familiar with C-like languages. On the other hand, Perl has a more unconventional syntax that includes a larger number of special characters and regular expressions, which can be challenging for beginners to grasp.

  2. Purpose: PHP is specifically designed for web development and is widely used for creating dynamic web applications. It has built-in features and functions that facilitate web development tasks such as database connectivity and form handling. Perl, on the other hand, is a general-purpose scripting language that can be used for various purposes beyond web development, such as text processing, system administration, and network programming.

  3. Community and Ecosystem: PHP has a larger and more established community compared to Perl. It has a wide array of frameworks, libraries, and tools that are actively maintained and supported by the community. This makes it easier for PHP developers to find resources, get help, and collaborate on projects. Perl, while still having an active community, does not have the same level of popularity and extensive ecosystem as PHP.

  4. Performance: PHP tends to have better performance when it comes to web development tasks due to its efficient execution of web-specific operations. It has modules specifically optimized for web-related functions like database connectivity and HTTP request handling. Perl, on the other hand, may have better performance for certain other tasks like text processing, where its regular expression capabilities shine.

  5. Code Readability: PHP code is generally considered to be more readable and easier to understand compared to Perl. Its syntax is more straightforward and less cryptic, making it more accessible to beginners and those unfamiliar with the language. Perl, on the other hand, allows for more concise and compact code but can be harder to read and maintain, especially for programmers new to the language.

  6. Database Integration: PHP has native support for a wide range of databases, including MySQL, PostgreSQL, and Oracle. It provides built-in functions and libraries for seamless integration with these databases, making it easier for developers to work with persistent data in web applications. Perl also has good database support through modules like DBI, but it may require more effort and expertise to set up and configure the database connectivity.

In summary, PHP and Perl have notable differences in terms of syntax, purpose, community support, performance, code readability, and database integration. Understanding these differences can help developers choose the most suitable language for their specific needs and requirements.

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Advice on PHP, Perl

Timm
Timm

VP Of Engineering at Flexperto GmbH

Nov 10, 2020

Decided

We have a lot of experience in JavaScript, writing our services in NodeJS allows developers to transition to the back end without any friction, without having to learn a new language. There is also the option to write services in TypeScript, which adds an expressive type layer. The semi-shared ecosystem between front and back end is nice as well, though specifically NodeJS libraries sometimes suffer in quality, compared to other major languages.

As for why we didn't pick the other languages, most of it comes down to "personal preference" and historically grown code bases, but let's do some post-hoc deduction:

Go is a practical choice, reasonably easy to learn, but until we find performance issues with our NodeJS stack, there is simply no reason to switch. The benefits of using NodeJS so far outweigh those of picking Go. This might change in the future.

PHP is a language we're still using in big parts of our system, and are still sometimes writing new code in. Modern PHP has fixed some of its issues, and probably has the fastest development cycle time, but it suffers around modelling complex asynchronous tasks, and (on a personal note) lack of support for writing in a functional style.

We don't use Python, Elixir or Ruby, mostly because of personal preference and for historic reasons.

Rust, though I personally love and use it in my projects, would require us to specifically hire for that, as the learning curve is quite steep. Its web ecosystem is OK by now (see https://www.arewewebyet.org/), but in my opinion, it is still no where near that of the other web languages. In other words, we are not willing to pay the price for playing this innovation card.

Haskell, as with Rust, I personally adore, but is simply too esoteric for us. There are problem domains where it shines, ours is not one of them.

682k views682k
Comments
Kyle
Kyle

Web Application Developer at Fortinet

Jun 2, 2020

Decided

Node continues to be dominant force in the world of web apps, with it's signature async first non-blocking IO, and frankly mind bending speeds. PHP and Python are formable tools, I chose Node for the simplicity of Express as a good and performant server side API gateway platform, that works well with Angular.

394k views394k
Comments
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

Detailed Comparison

PHP
PHP
Perl
Perl

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.

Statistics
GitHub Stars
39.6K
GitHub Stars
2.2K
GitHub Forks
8.0K
GitHub Forks
602
Stacks
147.4K
Stacks
4.3K
Followers
82.9K
Followers
935
Votes
4.6K
Votes
575
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
    "1;"
  • 2
    No OS threads
  • 2
    Bad OO support
Integrations
Laravel
Laravel
JavaScript
JavaScript
No integrations available

What are some alternatives to PHP, Perl?

JavaScript

JavaScript

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.

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.

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