Python vs. PHP (& Java?)

[Cameron Laird]

In article <92m5ar$cfm$2 at newshost.accu.uu.nl>,
Martijn Faassen <m.faassen at vet.uu.nl> wrote:
>Ben Ocean <beno at thewebsons.com> wrote:
>
>[snip]
>> Python has the advantage of byte-code and
>> compilation, but it’s server-side. PHP might not be as fast on the server,
>> but it doesn’t have to make as many trips back and forth between server and
>> client.
>
>It appears as if you're misunderstanding something here. Firstly, 
>I don't know which of the languages is faster; it probably depends on the
>task as much on the language itself. I don't know much about PHP, but I thought
Worth repeating.
>it could be compiled to bytecode or at least some intermediate format as well?
I quote <URL: http://www.zend.com/zend/whats-new.php >:
  PHP 4.0 is more efficient, more reliable,
  and much, much faster than PHP 3.0.  . . .

  This superior performance of PHP 4.0 is a
  result of the PHP scripting engine's
  redesign: ...  The PHP 4.0 scripting engine
  ... uses a much more efficient "compile-then-
  execute" paradigm, instead of the
  "execute-while parsing" model employed in PHP
  3.0.
Plenty (sufficient motivation could probably quantify
that usefully) of sites remain at PHP3; that probably
yields some of the confusion.
-- 

Cameron Laird <claird at NeoSoft.com>
Business:  http://www.Phaseit.net
Personal:  http://starbase.neosoft.com/~claird/home.html