Python v PHP: fair comparison?

[Luis M. González]

sjdevnull at yahoo.com ha escrito:

> Luis M. González wrote:
> > Cameron Laird ha escrito:
> > > Perhaps it's timely to clarify the "newer" above:  Guido
> > > made Python public in '89-90, and Rasmus showed PHP to
> > > others in '94-95.
> >
> > OK. But since when has python been considered a viable alternative for
> > web development?
> > As a generalp purpose language, it's older.
> > But as a web development language, it's olnly when people started to
> > look for the "rails killer" and many python alternatives started to
> > come up (although Django has been in development for a long time before
> > all this hype).
>
> Huh?  I've been doing paid python web work since 2000.  I'm fairly sure
> that Yahoo! groups predates that by a while, and I know that
> mod_python/httpdapy goes back at least to 1998 (and Python CGI predates
> that significantly).

Do not forget the subject of this thread.
Nobody is criticizing python here. I am a "believer"!
We are talking about important details that matter when choosing a
language, and specially when choosing one for web development.
I'm sure Yahoo, Google and other companies can afford having
knowledgeable people, hardware and resources to use python they way
they like.
The problem is (or was) for mere mortals trying to create a web site on
shared hostings.

We all know that mod_python has its issues, and still is not a common
or affordable feature in the vast mayority of web hosts. And prior to
that, you only had cgi or other rather unknown solutions.
mod_php had a clear advantage here. Perhaps not as a language but as an
ubiquitous and cheap alternative.

In the last months (and I said "months" not years) the situation
improved a lot, but still it is a fair to make a comparison.
My opinion is that python, as a language, is by far a much better
alternative for any use.
But php, as a platform, still has a many advantages, being availability
the main one.

Luis