How to Pick a Language

Pick PHP if you're very concerned with being able to find a quick, cheap online host for your web-app and you don't want to bother with learning another language (or with learning how to deploy web-apps in other languages, which really isn't very hard).

Re: How to Pick a Language

#5

Post by GeoJawDguJin » Fri, Jan 23, 2009, 2:39 AM UTC

gsmaverick wrote: post #2

PHP?

You don't really learn PHP so much as catch it.

Like a disease.

Re: How to Pick a Language

#6

Post by thomasmallen » Fri, Jan 23, 2009, 3:02 AM UTC

gsmaverick wrote: post #2

PHP?

Pick PHP if you want to use Wordpress, phpBB, Drupal, and a wealth of other great open-source web apps.

P.S. Final post; great community here!

Re: How to Pick a Language

#7

Post by jballanc » Fri, Jan 23, 2009, 3:07 AM UTC

Nice and thorough. I only have two qualms:

1. Reading through the Matz book on Ruby (http://oreilly.com/catalog/9780596516178/index.html), there's a very good explanation as to why Ruby/Python/Perl are "scripting" languages as opposed to "programming" languages: no main! That is, whichever file is fed to the interpreter is run (with some exceptions) in order. So these are, and probably always will be, scripting languages.

2. The author vastly underestimates the importance of Javascript...

Re: How to Pick a Language

#8

Post by jballanc » Fri, Jan 23, 2009, 3:08 AM UTC

gsmaverick wrote: post #2

PHP?

In fairness, why not just learn Perl? Then go back to PHP if it fits the problem space...

Re: How to Pick a Language

#9

Post by [deleted] » Fri, Jan 23, 2009, 3:25 AM UTC

gsmaverick wrote: post #2

PHP?

[deleted]

Re: How to Pick a Language

#10

Post by jimbokun » Fri, Jan 23, 2009, 3:39 AM UTC

gsmaverick wrote: post #2

PHP?

I don't know PHP, so didn't comment on it. Would it get its own category, or fit into one of the ones I gave?