> Python exists as an alternative, for the aforemention Web Creatures,
> who found PERL too difficult to comprehend as a language to parse
> their text and strings. Thus they use it, possibly unknowingly, as an
> alternative to PERL. Now they have Zope to use as a CGI.
Ahh Logan. Such nonsense makes fine fodder for flamewars! Oddly,
something about this one leaves me compelled to not let it just slide
by. I fear a tirade.
Just to clarify some misconceptions... the whole perl too difficult so
learn python thing is way off base. And I'm confused by your "Now
they have Zope to use as a CGI." Zope is an application server
written in python, and provides an everything plus the kitchen sink
framework for application server environments. CGI scripts written in
python don't need Zope. Python's cgi library has been around since
python 1.0.whatever.
> If you have enough programming experience they all do the same thing,
> and look a little different. Personally having learned all three, I
> like PHP best for web dev. Python for application dev. And Perl for
> glue apps.
I think this one from Christopher is more on the level. PHP was
largely designed for the web, and it does the web well. Sure it can
do other things too, but when it comes down to it, PHP was designed to
be embeddable in HTML. Python and Perl do the web well too, but they
were designed with broader goals and those languages exude an air of
flexibility over PHP. If you are interested in web-only, PHP is a
fine choice; that is what it was designed for and it does a good job.
For projects with broader needs, like tight integration with existing
applications, or even particularly large standalone projects, I
personally would shy away from exclusive PHP.
Perl was largely designed for text processing. Python and PHP can do
that too, but in those languages there is just more baggage associated
with text processing. Perl's greatest strength, IMO, is its ubiquity
and the size of its user-base. It works well. It's been around for
longer than python and php. CPAN is wonderful. It is a shame python
lacks a true equivalent to CPAN, but it is fair to make distinctions
between the strengths of the communities vs. the strengths of the
languages.
Python too, has its strengths. IMO python makes better glue. Perl
makes fine duct-tape, but IMO, Python stands out above the others here
when it comes to real integration. I'm not talking about the stdout
to stdin type glue. I'm talking object level, calling c/c++/java
functions to and from your python script, but more importantly, python
objects to use those "foreign" datatypes or whatever structs you can
cook up feel well thought-out and work. You can check out the samba3
python wrappers to see what I mean. And python's interactive mode
blows the others out of the water, particularly for power/flexibility.
Python stands out when it comes to rapid application development
prototyping, maintainability, encapsulation, and extensibility (if you
need those things). BitTorrent is a well-known application that
serves as an example. And at the risk of you ignoring everything
above and just criticizing the following, I will plunge into
subjective territory. IMO, Python has a cleaner design. Don't confuse
cleaner design to mean the famous syntax which some like and some
don't. I'm talking about the organization of a product that is an
interesting demonstration of how a mathematician / computer scientist
was influenced from his academic and real-world experiences with
interpreted language design. It is a beautiful accomplishment that
transcends 0's and 1's. Okay, you might just want to ignore the
previous few sentences ;).
All are great, all have strengths, and with enough work and hoops to
jump through you can get each to do pretty much what the other does.
Though I personally think python has a demonstrable technical edge and
more capabilities (without going into more subjective territory like
clean design), that impression could even still be colored by personal
bias. And if you don't require the capabilities that one language has
over another, then those capabilities hardly matter. In any case, to
classify python as an alternative to Perl for those who just can't
hack it is a bit grating. PHP has strong web strengths, but at the
expense of flexibility which at times can be hard to ignore. Perl has
its text processing and community strengths. I've already gone into
great length at some of Python's strengths. Anyway, I've said too
much, but that's what this local SLUG fiend has to say. And you might
want to avoid asking slashdot ;).
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