Comments on: Python or PHP?

By: Clever

Clever — Wed, 14 Dec 2011 22:31:09 +0000

In my opinion PHP is a easier language to learn but its really powerful. I have been coding in php for almost 2 years and found it very good. Python on the other hand is a really powerful language but not so easy to learn. Python has a better approach on security that php. But if i have a option between python and php i would chose php.

By: Jesse Taylor

Jesse Taylor — Wed, 09 Mar 2011 22:28:07 +0000

I’ve recently been thinking about migrating to Python from PHP as well. I’ve always hated PHP, and have only used it out of necessity. Python is by no means perfect, but it’s clearly a superior language to PHP. Anyhow, the comments here were very helpful and made for interesting reading.

By: Drupal developer

Drupal developer — Thu, 01 Jul 2010 01:08:32 +0000

I wrote PHP python java Erlang.
I think PHP is my favorite.

By: Tom

Tom — Mon, 05 Jan 2009 13:23:19 +0000

I started off with PHP at version 4 about 5 years ago, from nothing and it was a great way to learn how to program as object oriented concepts got introduced into the language, but now as I mature as a programmer and have found php to be a bit frustrating as I need to deliver more and more professional solutions in less time. I have been inspired by the django approach though and will now take the plunge and download and intall everything to build my first django site on python. Cross your fingers and wish me luck!

By: mozey

mozey — Tue, 07 Oct 2008 03:05:11 +0000

I have been coding in both languages. Short answer is, PYTHON.

By: Jeff

Jeff — Thu, 03 Jan 2008 21:27:44 +0000

I’ve just attempted to use a python sample program on 3 of the 5 servers I use for PHP applications. All I got was a list of the sample text. I named the program ‘sample.py’ and on my PC the little green snake appears.

Until the hosting servers I use support Python out of the box, like they do with PHP, there is no question which language I prefer – PHP.

By: Adam

Adam — Tue, 04 Dec 2007 15:00:03 +0000

Both have their advantages and disadvantages, but I think if PHP included namespaces, cleaned up their function naming conventions – or introduced one, and moved a lot of the default functions off into namespaces, then PHP will become rather untouchable, I feel.

By: Stuart Colville

Stuart Colville — Fri, 30 Nov 2007 15:53:00 +0000

@Stuart: cheers for the tip I’ll take a look at that. Sounds like the best solution for quick experiments.

By: Stuart Langridge

Stuart Langridge — Fri, 30 Nov 2007 08:34:20 +0000

It is pretty easy to just chuck up a Python file; just make it a CGI. It’s slower, of course, but just name it whatever.cgi, stick AddHandler cgi-script .cgi in your .htaccess, and use Python’s cgi modile to get form data. Pow, done. I do this all the time for small stuff.

By: Stuart Colville

Stuart Colville — Thu, 29 Nov 2007 15:04:01 +0000

@everyone: There’s been some excellent points made above, thanks for sharing your views.

Up until now I’ve used PHP much more for web stuff but I am really interested in being able to play with using Python for simple scripts on the web. Normally I tend to resort to using PHP for this as it’s just so much quicker. I really wish there was a quick way to be able to bung a .py file up onto a web-server without having to think about it.

Probably what I need to do is look at the Django handler and then write something generic suited for this task; if anyone has any good pointers in this area then please let me know, I’ve no doubt someon has already done this.

For bigger web-apps I’ve been using Django. The more that I use it the more I love it, it’s simple extensible and well thought out. It’s great to use something that allows you to get on with building the interesting parts of your application. In addition I’m impressed with how easy it is to add to the generic stuff that’s built-in. Part of this is purely down to Python’s flexibility.

I like the feel of coding in Python much more than PHP; partly this is down to syntax, but also idiom.
Although some idioms seem a little daunting at first I’ve grown to really appreciate them. I now find myself spending a little longer until I find a more ‘Python’ way of expressing something. I think all of this adds up to making Python code much more consistent overall and less mutated by people’s own coding preferences. Naturally the enforced indentation seems strange at first I’ve come to love it as it makes code so much more readable.

On the whole for me the Python bug has really bitten. Since creating TweetyPy as a fun project for learning the language (I’m currently working on a complete re-write) I’m really sold on using it for everything I can. I’ve still got time for PHP and naturally being the chosen server-side scripting language at YAHOO I’ll be continuing to use it for the foreseeable, however, at every opportunity where Python can be used and it makes sense to do so, Python is my preference.