From: dagbrown@... (Dave Brown)
Date: 2004-04-22T21:39:08+09:00
Subject: Re: Is Ruby is better than PHP ...

In article <1441333312.20040421215228@scriptolutions.com>,
Lothar Scholz  <mailinglists@scriptolutions.com> wrote:
: UN> So, what's the drawback of leaving PHP and embrace Ruby as web programming
: UN> tools?
: 
: If you must host 100 users on a 2,0 GHz Pentium with 1 GB RAM, you
: don't have real a choice: you must use PHP.

Assuming that all 100 users agree on what PHP syntax to use.

Have you looked at /etc/php.ini?  It's a single, global configuration
file, and it controls all kinds of aspects of the language.  For
example, the syntax:

; Use Sybase-style magic quotes (escape ' with '' instead of \').
magic_quotes_sybase = Off

Or the CGI-parsing behaviour:

; This directive describes the order in which PHP registers GET, POST, Cookie,
; Environment and Built-in variables (G, P, C, E & S respectively, often
; referred to as EGPCS or GPC).  Registration is done from left to right, newer
; values override older values.
variables_order = "EGPCS"

Change that and some of the scripts stop working and some of the scripts
start working.  And someone who tests their scripts on their home system
with a php.ini that slightly differs from yours will have all kinds of
problems.  Try to install an app which requires a change to your php.ini
and you could break everyone else's code.

And don't get me started on why there isn't an equivalent of DBI, or how
optimization patches aren't accepted into the open-source PHP codebase
(because that would compete with Zend) or why you have a choice of more
than 20 different functions just to do search-and-replace, or any number
of other things.

I'm in the process of banishing PHP from my web site.  I tried.  It
didn't work out.  It's just too painful to work with any more.  The
actual amount of code that I have to write has practically collapsed;
I've gone from multi-hundred-line PHP source files to tens-of-lines Ruby
source files.  Most of my source files I can now fit onto a single
(50-line) xterm.  Life is so much easier now, and I can spend my time
doing what I want to instead of fighting with the language.

--Dave