Microsoft couldn't have done nearly that good a job. PHP is a pretty decent language, when it comes to CGI... granted, it's more or less limited to being a CGI language, but it does that well.
I have to agree. PHP does a specific job, and it does it well. While a multi-purpose tool like perl is capable of more, a dedicated tool like PHP will accomplish the same task more quickly or with less effort.
One could probably make a comparable statement about Visual Basic, though.
I'm with Patrick on this one. PHP has many of the hallmarks of Microsoft. It doesn't really do anything that can't be done perfectly well in other languages, it has a tendency to break in non-intuitive ways after system or network changes that shouldn't be expected to affect it, and it makes it really easy to write really crappy, insecure code. I know of numerous instances in which entire webservers have been compromised from a single poorly-written PHP program on a single virtual host.
Actually, I disagree. C was created to be a powerful tool for performing low-level operations that are non-trivial or impossible in many other high-level languages. Heck, bluntly, it was created as a language for writing operating systems in, and it's still the preferred language for writing things like OS kernels and device drivers.
True, it's very possible to write bad, insecure code in C -- there's abundant proof of that. [cough, cough, MICROSOFT, cough] PHP, however (IMHO of course), lowers the bar for the level of actual programming knowledge required to write code that actually works and that is capable of compromising an entire system.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
no subject
no subject
no subject
I'm with Patrick on this one. PHP has many of the hallmarks of Microsoft. It doesn't really do anything that can't be done perfectly well in other languages, it has a tendency to break in non-intuitive ways after system or network changes that shouldn't be expected to affect it, and it makes it really easy to write really crappy, insecure code. I know of numerous instances in which entire webservers have been compromised from a single poorly-written PHP program on a single virtual host.
no subject
Visual Ba[sic], on the other hand... don't get me started.
no subject
Actually, I disagree. C was created to be a powerful tool for performing low-level operations that are non-trivial or impossible in many other high-level languages. Heck, bluntly, it was created as a language for writing operating systems in, and it's still the preferred language for writing things like OS kernels and device drivers.
True, it's very possible to write bad, insecure code in C -- there's abundant proof of that. [cough, cough, MICROSOFT, cough] PHP, however (IMHO of course), lowers the bar for the level of actual programming knowledge required to write code that actually works and that is capable of compromising an entire system.
no subject
PHP is very nearly a subset of perl (except that the regexes work a bit differently).
I'm sure that if
no subject
no subject
no subject