Python vs. PHP (& Java?)

[Kemp Randy-W18971]

  Can we nip language comparisons in the bud?  In reality, if someone claims one language is better then another, I would ask to see the studies to back the claim.  In reality, there are really several good languages and each has its own camp.  If a person is really good in a language, they could probably get the language to solve most programming problems.  While I do have my own biases (Java and Python), I recognize and salute the benefits of Perl, PHP, JavaScript, etc.  Suppose we take the arguments for computer languages and extended them to human languages.
1.  Could we argue that English is a better language to use around the world then French or Spanish?
2.  Could we argue that an artificial language, such as Esperanto, is better to use around the world then a natural language, like English?
  Isn't there an axiom in physics that an experimenter influences the outcome of his experiment (physicists, help me out here)?  
    

-----Original Message-----
From: Alex Martelli [mailto:aleaxit at yahoo.com]
Sent: Thursday, December 28, 2000 4:11 AM
To: python-list at python.org
Subject: Re: Python vs PHP (& Java?)


"Tim Hammerquist" <tim at degree.ath.cx> wrote in message
news:slrn94l86m.a3h.tim at degree.ath.cx...
> Ben Ocean <zope at TheWebsons.com> wrote:
> > I'm an intermediate-level programmer that's new to Python (via Zope) and
I
> > like it a lot. However, it appears to me that, while Python is a good
> > replacement for Perl, it cannot replace much of the functionality of
PHP,
> > which can be scripted into HTML (whereas Python, it appears, must be
> > called).
>
> Ok, everyone else made very good points, but this little comment slipped
> out (not that I'm surprised, honestly)  =)   There is no "replacement
> for Perl!"  And Python would do a poor job trying to be Perl (and vice
> versa), nor does anyone here seem to _want_ Python to be/replace Perl.

Not sure what you mean here.  Over my first 2-3 months of Python,
I rewrote _every_ Perl script on my machine in Python, and the gains
in clarity, reliability, and maintainability, were outstanding.

The 'good-applicability niches' of Perl and Python are vastly
overlapped (and not so small as to really deserved being called
'niches', but that's another issue).  I can't think of any program
I would rather write in Perl than in Python, though I guess I
might *have* to, if forced (by somebody pointing a loaded gun at
my head with its safety off, for example).  So, for me, Python HAS
indeed served as "a good replacement for Perl" -- everything I used
to do in Perl, I now do in Python instead; what other definition
of "replacement" are you using instead?


Alex