Why should I learn PHP ?

[python@hope.cz]

Hello folks,
I have been programming with Perl then with Python for about 7 years.
But I have heard a lot of praise about PHP but I would like to know
what is so nice with PHP and if it is worth starting to learn PHP.
Cheers,
L.B.

[Andy Hassall]

Re: Why should I learn PHP ?

On 23 Apr 2005 03:47:44 -0700, python@hope.cz wrote:
[color=blue]
>I have been programming with Perl then with Python for about 7 years.
>But I have heard a lot of praise about PHP but I would like to know
>what is so nice with PHP and if it is worth starting to learn PHP.[/color]

Depends what you want to do with it. Have a look through:

http://www.php.net/manual/en/introduction.php

--
Andy Hassall / <andy@andyh.co. uk> / <http://www.andyh.co.uk >
<http://www.andyhsoftwa re.co.uk/space> Space: disk usage analysis tool

[Data Goob]

Re: Why should I learn PHP ?

Why shouldn't you learn PHP?

PHP is for web application development. If you're doing web development
you need to know about and learn PHP.

Perl was designed for the command-line, shell executable world, and adapted
to the web, it was never ideally suited to the web, and had to be adapted to it.
Perl is very useful, but has many limitations to it that make it less than
ideal for web application programming. ( Perl is on my list of favorite
tools right next to PHP )

PHP was designed for the web, and can be adapted for the command-line,
the inverse of Perl. I've found plenty of use for PHP on the command
line for a lot of uses similar to Perl.

Make no mistake, both are powerful, and both are important. Both are
used for web applications, but PHP is the most popular simply because
it is designed for web applications. It is also FREE, unlike a lot of
other web application languages, i.e. ASP, Coldfusion.

If you stop by Netcraft and look at what the dominant technologies are
with respect to what businesses are using, you'll see what the trends
are, and why learning PHP makes sense if you are doing applications on
the internet.

First, the apache web server dominates the net:

http://www.netcraft.com/Survey/Reports/0504/

http://www.netcraft.com/Survey/Reports/current/graphs.html

Next question, what to use with Apache?
Apache uses modules and dll's to make it work with different
configurations. What are the most popular modules?

http://www.securityspace.com/s_survey/data/man.200503/apachemods.html

http://www.securityspace.com/s_survey/data/man.200503/apachemods.html?mod=UEhQ

http://www.php.net/usage.php

So, by the numbers you can see it's important to at least know
why learning PHP is important if you are going to do any kind
of serious web application development. Many, if not all of the
most popular shopping carts use PHP, so more reasons to use PHP.

Hope this helps you get going with PHP. PHP also has better
date routines than Perl, something Perl should have fixed
years ago.

Maybe Python will emerge as another tool and important to the web,
e-commerce, etc. But it hasn't caught on like PHP. You should
also investigate CURL, which is being used more and more with
PHP.

-DG-

python@hope.cz wrote:[color=blue]
> Hello folks,
> I have been programming with Perl then with Python for about 7 years.
> But I have heard a lot of praise about PHP but I would like to know
> what is so nice with PHP and if it is worth starting to learn PHP.
> Cheers,
> L.B.
>[/color]

[Daniel Tryba]

Re: Why should I learn PHP ?

python@hope.cz wrote:[color=blue]
> I have been programming with Perl then with Python for about 7 years.
> But I have heard a lot of praise about PHP but I would like to know
> what is so nice with PHP and if it is worth starting to learn PHP.[/color]

Depends on what you wants/needs are. Since you have been using other
platforms for a couple of years without ever touching PHP I'd guess you
don't need it, but maybe you want to increase your experience in
alternatives. PHP is quite popular for serverisde "HTML/www" scripting
(but certainly not limited to it).

With your experience it should be enough to take a look at phps
reference, howto handle variables, functions, classes etc. to see if you
like the syntax and to scan the available library functions to get an
idea what can easily be done with it.

[Tim Tyler]

Re: Why should I learn PHP ?

python@hope.cz wrote or quoted:
[color=blue]
> I have been programming with Perl then with Python for about 7 years.
> But I have heard a lot of praise about PHP but I would like to know
> what is so nice with PHP and if it is worth starting to learn PHP.[/color]

PHP is more widespread then Python - through being bundled with
the Apache web server from its early days - and can be conveniently
embedded straight into what are otherwise ordinary HTML documents.
--
__________
|im |yler http://timtyler.org/ tim@tt1lock.org Remove lock to reply.

[Kenneth Downs]

Re: Why should I learn PHP ?

python@hope.cz wrote:
[color=blue]
> Hello folks,
> I have been programming with Perl then with Python for about 7 years.
> But I have heard a lot of praise about PHP but I would like to know
> what is so nice with PHP and if it is worth starting to learn PHP.
> Cheers,
> L.B.[/color]

If you like Perl, but want your code more readable, PHP is very nice. There
are many many other strengths but since you mentioned Perl, thought I'd
bring that one up.


--
Kenneth Downs
Secure Data Software, Inc.
(Ken)nneth@(Sec )ure(Dat)a(.com )

[Kenneth Downs]

Re: Why should I learn PHP ?

Data Goob wrote:
[color=blue]
> Why shouldn't you learn PHP?
>
> PHP is for web application development. If you're doing web development
> you need to know about and learn PHP.
>
> Perl was designed for the command-line, shell executable world, and
> adapted to the web, it was never ideally suited to the web, and had to be
> adapted to it. Perl is very useful, but has many limitations to it that
> make it less than
> ideal for web application programming. ( Perl is on my list of favorite
> tools right next to PHP )
>[/color]

Allow me to add that PHP also runs on the command line with all of the
strengths of Perl. We adopted it for precisely this reason, that we could
use the same language for web apps and for OS scripts.

--
Kenneth Downs
Secure Data Software, Inc.
(Ken)nneth@(Sec )ure(Dat)a(.com )

[Chung Leong]

Re: Why should I learn PHP ?


<python@hope.cz > wrote in message
news:1114253264 .724608.250500@ f14g2000cwb.goo glegroups.com.. .[color=blue]
> Hello folks,
> I have been programming with Perl then with Python for about 7 years.
> But I have heard a lot of praise about PHP but I would like to know
> what is so nice with PHP and if it is worth starting to learn PHP.
> Cheers,
> L.B.
>[/color]

The nicest thing is the documentation. Both the core language features and
the external modules are very well documented. And everything is in one
place. Have a question about image manipulation? Go to www.php.net. Have a
question about compression? PDF creation? Go to www.php.net. Most entries
contain examples and good advice can often be found in the user contributed
notes.