 |
| latest from firepages |
| from PHP |
| from Apache |
| from MySQL |
 |
| Why PHP? |
| resistance is futile |
 |
| phpdev bundles |
| phpdev5 beta |
| phpdev FAQ |
 |
| phpdev forums |
| Sites running PHP |
| links to tutorials |
| resource links |
 |
 |
 |
|
Why PHP?
Where to start.... Well why not with the most common reasons given for not using PHP. Nobody uses it / never heard of it Hmmm - First off If someone tells you they have never heard of PHP - ignore them. No matter how many MSCE's they may have. Apache as you all know is by far the most popular web server on the internet today, PHP is the most popular Apache module.... add those together and see what you get. Do not believe me? securityspace.com PHP runs many a large site - you have been to lots of them already - even if you did not know it you can check out a few of them here. Yahoo runs PHP , it is one of the biggest if not the biggest site you can get your paws on, did I say it runs PHP ? and employs several of the big cheeses from the PHP development crew ? , nor is that the only `enterprise` website PHP runs , but this is all old news these days PHP does not have a standard database API Good ;). 'Standard' anything's tend to slow the whole process down, and there are lots of database abstraction classes out there (FREE ones - this ain't ASP!) if you feel the need. In reality you are unlikely to need to port most web-apps from one DB to another, and if you suddenly decide to use Oracle instead of MySQL/PostgreSQL you are going to have to rethink the whole structure of your code anyway. (OK with 4.06 you get an API, check out the dbx functions in the manual) PHP5 includes PDO extension + drivers for most common DB's PHP does not support OOP! Yes it does. PHP5 has even better OO support with exceptions, interfaces, abstract classes etc etc (no, no namespaces yet) PHP does not support COM! Yes it does. PHP is not cross-platform Yes it is. Strangely enough this comment normally comes from ASP heads.... who really have nothing to shout about on this one. You need Linux to develop with PHP No you don't, this site was written on a win 98 box - I would not use anything else. Update , ok its now written on Ubuntu or winXP depending on the time of day and is locally tested on debian or fedora however the above still holds true) PHP is FREE! Yes ... I honestly have heard this , more than once , as a reason not to use PHP!!!! CGI\'s are slow Yes they can be - PHP however comes as a CGI or an Apache or ISAPI module. With ASP I can use several languages Well you can call PERL/JAVA routines with PHP if you wish, but unless you have a pet PERL script that you have grown to love, PHP can do the job anyway. There are no email/this COM / that MOD /whatever ... add-ons for PHP!!! No - you don't need them PHP does it for you. <= at least I can happily say that I have never found anything I need PHP to do that it can not do! You can not make standalone applications with PHP! If that were true , I would say fine! - PHP is a web-programming language - it is not meant to be anything else. In the same way that MS Access is a fine desktop database - it is not a serious contender for online applications. Now with PHP GTK and accessing of the win API,(still very basic) things may change. To be honest I think win programming is best left to VB/JAVA/PERL etc - but its always nice to say - yep PHP can do that too. Update PHP-GTK2 approacheth hold onto your hats ok, see gtk.php.net |