Ask HN: Bet the farm. Python or PHP?

Post by neovive » Sun, Jun 08, 2008, 3:34 AM UTC

t0pj wrote: post #21

yourabi wrote: post #10

Go with Python. PHP is probably the worst language I've had to use (Single namespace, poor unicode...) Python on the other hand is pretty cool. It can be OO, functional, or procedural depending on how you want to look at it. It also has a lot baked into the standard interpreter and has some really awesome frameworks (Django, Pylons)

Single namespace in PHP - Ouch. You can gracefully get around this with classes perhaps? Any thoughts on PHP frameworks? On Python, I've heard that TurboGears is a pretty good framework as well. I remember reading somewhere that you don't run Django, it runs you. Any fiction in that?

Post by t0pj » Sun, Jun 08, 2008, 3:35 AM UTC

wensing wrote: post #27

Python. It is more powerful with an extremely flat learning curve. In other words, you don't hit many walls with it. When you want to do something more powerful, the answer is 'right there'--it fits the brain. This is a bit dated but may help: http://www.artima.com/intv/prodperfP.html

Post by t0pj » Sun, Jun 08, 2008, 3:40 AM UTC

sachinag wrote: post #35

I spent a lot of time bellyaching about this when starting my company - looking at PHP, Perl (preferred by the devs), and Python (preferred by the advisers I trust). In the end, we went PHP, and it was hugely lucky - we were able to hire a couple of devs on very short notice because we were in PHP, even though we use a less popular framework called Qcodo. After they were hired, I asked them what they thought, and the…

Post by t0pj » Sun, Jun 08, 2008, 3:49 AM UTC

menloparkbum wrote: post #36

I've used all three of the languages you mention for relatively large web applications. People will say PHP sucks because it is ugly and retarded and only has one namespace. People will say Python sucks because of the whitespace issue and mod_python doesn't work on a $5/m shared hosting plan. Perl sucks of course because "the syntax is crazy!" But, huge sites are built in PHP (Facebook, Hype Machine, Flickr, half of…

Post by jrockway » Sun, Jun 08, 2008, 4:01 AM UTC

natch wrote: post #41

newt0311 wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And perl has nothing approaching Python's readability. Perl may be easier to start with now but in 6 months, it will become a major headache. Read http://www.linuxjournal.com/article/3882 . Using Python would be an excellent choice imo.

Perl is more readable to someone who knows Perl, because it gives you indications what type each variable is: $ for scalars (single values without dimension) @ for arrays % for hashes (like python's dictionaries) With python, you have to guess. Of course, many people who are intimidated by Perl have made the same statement about readability, and it is often repeated unthinkingly. That doesn't mean it's true. On the o…

    my $foo = [];
    my $foo = {};
    my $foo = "Hello, world.";
    my $foo = \"Hello, world.";