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@NogDogOct 31.2006 — #Just to be a bit pedantic: PHP is not an interpreted language; it is a run-time compiled language (as is Perl, too).
BASIC was an interpreted language: the interpreter would read a line, parse it, execute it, then move to the next line. PHP scripts, on the other hand, are actually compiled each time they are run by the PHP parser (with the same possibility of executable optimization as other, compiled languages), and then that compiled object is what is actually executed. Admittedly, it may be limited in the amount of optimization done as compared with a language which creates stand-alone executables files, since the compilation time becomes a factor in execution time. @NogDogOct 31.2006 — #
Yes, there are compilers that will do that. Like any other compiler, the resulting executable is then a platform-specific file that will only execute on the appropriate hardware/OS, but it will be faster than the same Perl script executed by a Perl run-time compiler, since does not have to be parsed and compiled from the source code each time it is executed.
Why have I used PHP?
Hello, I am a Junior Developer and have constructed a search engine for my organisations website/intranet which works fine. I used PHP 5.0 and MySQL as this is what I am most proficient at using, the problem is that I am now faced with several presentations in which I discuss my design decisions, one of them being why I chose PHP to develop the search facility. As already mentioned familiarity with PHP and MySQL was the main reason, plus PHP has some useful functions like get_meta_tags, strip_tags as well as a large number of string manipulation functions which all made the task relatively easy but beyond these few reasons I don’t know why else PHP and MySQL are a good choice. I am a competant developer but not overly knowledgeable about the advantages/disadvantages different languages have over one and other in this situation, some of my colleagues keep mentioning Perl being a better language to have used but they just sound biassed as this is their language of choice. If anyone can help and give me some reasoning then that would be really useful.
Thanks
Solaar
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@NogDogOct 31.2006 — #BASIC was an interpreted language: the interpreter would read a line, parse it, execute it, then move to the next line. PHP scripts, on the other hand, are actually compiled each time they are run by the PHP parser (with the same possibility of executable optimization as other, compiled languages), and then that compiled object is what is actually executed. Admittedly, it may be limited in the amount of optimization done as compared with a language which creates stand-alone executables files, since the compilation time becomes a factor in execution time.
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@NogDogOct 31.2006 — #Apparently, all Perl is not alike. (I have also heard of Perlscript -- or some such). I am no expert, but I do know a CGI programmer that writes Perl code which is pre-compiled into an executable module.[/QUOTE]
Yes, there are compilers that will do that. Like any other compiler, the resulting executable is then a platform-specific file that will only execute on the appropriate hardware/OS, but it will be faster than the same Perl script executed by a Perl run-time compiler, since does not have to be parsed and compiled from the source code each time it is executed.