[UPHPU] Rails vs PHP

[Joshua Simpson]

On 3/23/07, jtaber <jtaber at johntaber.net> wrote:
>
>
> What advantages does Ruby language have over PHP ?  Many Ruby/Rails
> users would say Ruby is "cleaner".  It also has a different iterator
> syntax.  And it has more of a object-oriented architecture.  And no $
> :)  Personally I prefer the more C / java like syntax of PHP.



PHP is a poorly designed language any way you look at it.  The fact that PHP
has no real naming convention for it's entire builtin function library, the
fact that PHP dumps all of these functions (without a naming convention!)
into the global namespace, and then expects you to work from this one
namespace (without any sort of sub namespace solution;  unless you use a
class hack), it's ridiculous include/require feature, which serves almost no
point, without namespaces, in usage of pure PHP, it's inclusion of
exceptions in 5, yet they're almost useless without a complete restructure
of the language to include exceptions.... the list goes on.  I like PHP, but
it's not an elegant language, it's not really a clever language, and it's
certainly not well designed.

So comparing PHP to robust languages like Ruby (which I don't like,
personally), or Python (you all know my feelings toward Python), serves
almost no point.  It does, in fact, have much more in common with a
framework than a specific language.   So, honestly, I think it'd be much
more honest to compare it to Rails, or Pylons, or Django, or TurboGears, or
numerous other frameworks you could name.

I'm not trying to flame, but I think it's important to understand how PHP
fits into the wide world of programming languages, and the slightly smaller
world of web development.  Besides, I think everyone has heard me say this
time, and time, and time, again (and probably expected it as soon as reading
this thread).

I must reiterate, however, that I like working in PHP (most of the time),
and it can be fun (most of the time).  This can be (and 80% of the time, is)
more important you're programming, whether in a hobbyist manner, or
professionally.  I just love programming in Python way, way more (most of
the time).

Right tool for the job, anyone?

My 2 (20?) cents.

dw

-- 
-
http://stderr.ws/
"Some pseudo-insightful quote here." - Some Guy