What is the advantages of php?

[asha]

hi,<br><br>&nbsp;What is the advantages of php over other server scripting languages (like JSP,java script,ASP,PERL).<br><br>&nbsp;Is it possible to develope a single program that supports <br>&nbsp;all the databases(using single command)?If developed how to install it on the server and how the user knows to which database he is connected?<br><br>please reply<br><br>regards<br>&nbsp;&nbsp;asha

 

[ElgisRamon]

Advantage: It's very integrated with the WebServer it supports. Example, you can make apache process every and each HTML file like a PHP program.<br><br>Advantage: There are no new child processes running your PHP programs, Apache process these files. You don't need to worry about HTTP headers, your files <i>always</i> are processed like HTML, but&nbsp;&nbsp;with new runnable sentences.<br><br>You can make ODBC aware programs and do all your database work thru it.

 

[kfickert]

I know one major advantage of PHP over ASP, you can use it on almost any platform including NT.&nbsp;&nbsp;Makes it very easy to develop in Windows and then use on a *iux server or the other way around.&nbsp;&nbsp;Also, if the possiblity exists that you may change platforms at any time in the future, you don't have to recode anything or worry about it not working.<br><br>Advantage over PERL, one is it reduces server load over CGI/PERL.&nbsp;&nbsp;Also its cross-platform as stated above.&nbsp;&nbsp;There are a lot of PERL programs that work on *iux based systems but not NT.&nbsp;&nbsp;Also there can be a *few* problems between even *iux platforms. I have one program that we use, we didn't develop it, that has to have different settings for Linux and FreeBSD. We didn't know this until we switched platforms from Linux to BSD, very annoying.<br><br>Advantage over javascript, easily connected to just about any database type ranging from flatfile text to Oracle.&nbsp;&nbsp;<br><br>Advantages to Java Servlets, PHP has support on servers than Java Servlets...not many hosting services support these.&nbsp;&nbsp;I never have messed with Java Servelts at all, so I can't make any clear statements other than about the lack of support on many servers.<br><br>Hope this helps

 

[rycamor]

Besides, performance and portability, PHP also tends to have a nice clean syntax (with a great suite of web-related functions).&nbsp;&nbsp;JSP and ASP pages generally tend to take 2 or 3 times the amount of code to do the same things as PHP. Perl only beats PHP for regular expression manipulation and a some of the more complex tasks. My own experience: compared to ASP, dynamic web pages almost seem to fall together with PHP.<br><br>Remember, PHP was developed _primarily_ for webserver scripting. All the other tools mentioned were more generalized languages, or were offshoots thereof.<br><br>That being said, though, it looks like the Zend Scripting Engine (the engine behind PHP) might be applied to generalized scripting in the future. Hope it maintains it's small footprint.<br>