[SunRescue] PHP3 questions [off-topic]

[Christopher Klein]

I certainly dont wont to get into a war about this!! My personal
preference is PHP. I tried the perl DBI/DBD and couldnt get the git to
work at all well. Yes, PHP does have one problem in that it doesnt have a
standard interface for databases so if you move from one database to
another you have to change your script. But I dont see that as much of a
problem becuase you are not likely to do that everyday! 

At the end of the day its down to personal preference.





On Tue, 4 Apr 2000, David Cantrell wrote:

> Christopher Klein <C.Klein at scm.brad.ac.uk> wrote:
> 
> > You can do all your usual CGI stuff with PHP, and the benefits are it is
> > damn easy to program in, it has fantastic support for databse access and
> > is faster than using perl to access databases such as MySQL.
> 
> This is not true, IME.  PHP's database support is sorely lacking.  Until
> recently, there was no standard interface to databases so your code was
> not portable between Oracle and Sybase and MySQL and so on - unlike
> perl's well-supported DBI/DBD interface.  I believe this is changing
> now, but PHP still has a fair way to go before it catches up with perl
> in this area.
> 
> As for speed - yes, PHP is faster than plain ol' perl CGIs, and gives
> many advantages for things like session tracking.  You would expect that
> with PHP as it gets built into the server!  However, when you compare
> with mod_perl - that is, with *perl* built into the server - then they
> are neck-and-neck.
> 
> Incidentally, if you're using MySQL, you probably don't run a very busy
> - or important - site.  So any minute speed difference is not relevant
> anyway :-)
> 
> >                                                              it also is
> > more secure than using Perl CGI which can leave some nasty security holes.
> 
> Any programming language can be used to create security holes, including
> PHP.  Perhaps you could cite some examples of security holes which are
> present in a well-maintained perl environment and which are not present
> in a well-maintained PHP environment, and which are an artifact of the
> language itself rather than of the programmer.
> 
> I am aware of several sites (and indeed, programs which are *not* used
> in websites) which have security holes and which use perl.  They are
> all, however, amateurish security holes which they would still have if
> they used PHP or any other language for their server-side processing. 
> The flaws are not in the language but in the way the programmer has used
> it.
> 
> > If you see sites that are .asp, it is exactly the same idea except that
> > asp is a microshaft idea and hence not worth mentioning.
> 
> Ahhhh, now on that you have my whole-hearted agreement :-)
> 
> Sorry to carp on about this, but I *really* hate it when I see stuff
> such as this which is JUST PLAIN WRONG.  Yes, I know this is off-topic. 
> Follow-ups off-list please.  I will not respond to replies sent to the
> list.
> 
> -- 
> David Cantrell
> Grand High Panjandrum
> Croydon Perl Mongers
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> 

Christopher Klein
Final Year BSc(Hons) Computing Science