PHP vs. Python

[Eric Pederson]

Paul Rubin did say:

> For sites that get less traffic than that, they only reason they need
> to scale if they're written in Python is that Python is too slow.


Asked earnestly: is there a feel or quantification that Python is slower than PHP in network applications?

If, so, I am wondering if it is because of the traction PHP has in the web community leading to possibly tighter integration with (e.g.) Apache.

My beloved Python-oriented webhost doesn't currently support Mod-Python due to concerns about unknown security risks, and without that one carries the interpreter start-up burden for each invocation, as I understand it.  Speed in a server-client environment does concern me a bit because 100+ hits per second would be the minimum realm of success for the web app I am building in Python (I do not foresee using PHP, so maybe I would convert everything to C++ if I had to, but I really would not want to have to...)

In everything I have done so far, Python's speed has been quite satisfactory, and I always remember the loud complainings in the MySQL forum about SQL queries that take seconds, minutes, days... only to end up magnitudes faster when someone points out the folly of the code or table set-up.

Not sure if the OP is considering Python v.s. PHP on the server or on the desktop (PHP isn't web only, except by common use); they are very different use cases.




Eric Pederson
http://www.songzilla.blogspot.com
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