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Topic: HTML, PHP, vs PERL (Read 53 times)
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Guardian_Tenshi
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HTML, PHP, vs PERL
« on: February 09, 2004, 10:25:03 PM »
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ok, Porter, or other web savvy coders,
what is the difference between the HTML, PHP, and Perl, and what would I use which for?? Do we have people who are savvy enough any of these languages to help me if i start trying to code webpages with them and have questions?? I'm pretty sure Porter knows PHP and Perl, but the more sources the better...
Tenshi
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| « Last Edit: February 09, 2004, 11:01:10 PM by Guardian_Tenshi » |
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Re:HTML, PHP, vs PERL
« Reply #1 on: February 09, 2004, 11:03:36 PM »
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Just like anything else, it's a function of using the best tool for the job, and using what is available to you. With Geocities, you only choice is raw HTML, since they don't support scripting at all. Perl is supported on most unix hosts without anything extra, but PHP support has to be added (though that's getting more and more common). So your main limiting factor is the machine you're hosting your site on. But assuming you have access to any language you want to use, it's a matter of what you know and what will get the job done the easiest.
Perl is not an easy beginning language for anything, but PHP has a very steep initial learning curve. I think in the end PHP will end up becoming more intuitive than Perl will. It can just take a good bit of thinking to understand how PHP interacts with the HTML that surrounds it.
I personally prefer PHP over any other language for practically any project right now. It has tons of built-in routines, it's very fast, very cross platform, good database access functions, has a good GUI front-end (HTML), and has syntax and behavior much like C++. Everything on this site is coded in PHP. Once you get the hang of it, it's a very stimulating language to use.
I'd be happy to share my PHP projects with you sometime. What I would highly suggest is the buying The PHP Black Book. This is the book that I taught myself PHP from, and is a valuable reference guide. This and the online PHP manual are pretty much all you ever need to do anything once you learn the language basics.
It's important to point out though, that since PHP uses HTML as it's primary "user interface" it's REALLY recommended to have a very firm grasp on HTML before adding PHP to it. If you can't code webpages from scratch by hand, and do it using standards-based HTML and add-ons like CSS, then don't bother learning PHP yet. Knowing HTML will make using PHP that much faster and easier. You won't have to spend nearly as much time generating HTML from inside PHP if you already know what HTML is good at and then learning what PHP is good at.
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[Wumpa] Porter
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[Guardian] Alkali
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Re:HTML, PHP, vs PERL
« Reply #2 on: February 10, 2004, 12:26:21 PM »
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My experience is very much limited to HTML, coding in notepad. However, I now do all of my site work in Dreamweaver 4, Flash 5, Freehand 10, Fireworks 4, so thats how I would progress.
Im going to do some thinking with regards to the guardian site, and try some things out for a simple placeholder for now, while I do the background stuff.
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Re:HTML, PHP, vs PERL
« Reply #3 on: February 10, 2004, 12:41:19 PM »
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In my experience (as a contracted web developer and a maintainer of half a dozen websites), Dreamweaver (and co.) is the second best at generating HTML, but it's a distant second and only slightly better than Frontpage. It still relies heavily on layers, which are about as clumsy a way of building webpages as using a jackhammer to put a nail in your wall for hanging a picture. A simple hammer would work much better.
In my opinion, Adobe GoLive does the best job of allowing you to stick to the standards with as little intervention in the source as possible. It also has the tightest relation between is WYSIWYG editor and what it's doing on the source code side of things. Dreamweaver and Frontpage will generate 60 lines of code for a web page that says only "welcome to my site" whereas GoLive produces about 15. It's still not perfect mind you (since a by-hand approach would generate less than 10 lines), but it comes closer that "purely visual" programs like Frontpage and Dreamweaver. I use GoLive for site management (which it absolutely EXCELS at!), and a text editor to keep the code itself clean.
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[Wumpa] Porter
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slightcrazed
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Re:HTML, PHP, vs PERL
« Reply #4 on: February 10, 2004, 01:09:04 PM »
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I think if you're starting from scratch then it is imperitive to code by hand until you are comfortable with html... You will be very happy later that you have some background knowledge of how the code works when you need to debug the crap that Frontpage and Dreamweaver spit out...
slight
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neo_sable
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Re:HTML, PHP, vs PERL
« Reply #5 on: February 10, 2004, 01:39:53 PM »
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php can be used in windows systems , try foxserv installer (http://www.foxserv.net) it includes apache +php+mysql for windows
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Guardian_Tenshi
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Re:HTML, PHP, vs PERL
« Reply #6 on: February 10, 2004, 01:57:40 PM »
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what is that actually installing?? the language bases? or an editor taht writes that code for me?? ah well, i'll check it out after class.
Tenshi
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Re:HTML, PHP, vs PERL
« Reply #7 on: February 10, 2004, 03:24:53 PM »
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PHP is a server-side language. That means the code is run on the server, and only the output is sent to the user-- in the form of an HTML page. In order for the program that is actually running the webserver (usually apache on *nix boxes) to be able to "run" PHP code, it needs to have a PHP module either loaded into it or configured to outsource specific files to the PHP interpreter before sending the output to the user. As for MySQL, it's a client-server interface, which means you start a program that runs all the time in the background and listens for database connections from "clients." Clients can either be PHP scripts, or a direct command line interaction from a user, or C programs... anything really. "Installing MySQL" means getting a MySQL server set up on a machine you have access too-- the easiest choice being the machine you'll be doing your development on.
Neo is suggesting a package that installs Apache (with PHP already "installed" into it) and MySQL together. While this is a good suggestion for Windows users, Tenshi has something better: an actual linux box. You can do everything you need to on your FreeBSD system Tenshi. Next time you're around, we can get it all set up (not something I want to try over AIM or the phone).
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[Wumpa] Porter
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Guardian_Tenshi
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Re:HTML, PHP, vs PERL
« Reply #8 on: February 12, 2004, 11:11:25 PM »
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erg...
we still need to hammer out some problems with my laptop too...I'm still not getting everything. But am understanding more and more.
Tenshi
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