Trying to decide between PHP and Python

[John Nagle]

On 1/6/2011 12:41 PM, Chris Rebert wrote:
> On Thu, Jan 6, 2011 at 11:11 AM, John Nagle<nagle at animats.com>  wrote:
>> On 1/4/2011 12:20 PM, Google Poster wrote:
>>>
>>> About once a year, I have to learn yet another programming language.
>>> Given all the recommendations (an outstanding accolade from Bruce
>>> Eckel, author of "Thinking in Java") I have set my aim to Python.
>>> Sounds kinda cool.
>>
>>     If you're just doing simple web-based services, PHP is the
>> way of least resistance.  It's supported by almost all hosting
>> services.  Trying to run Python on shared hosting is generally
>> painful.  Either you're stuck running in CGI, which means you
>> take the cost of a Python load on every transaction, or you
>> have to find someone who will let you run long-running
>> processes so you can run FCGI/WSGI or some Python framework.
>
> VPS hosting can be surprisingly cheap these days though (e.g. prgmr's
> super-cheapo plan is $4-5/month); you get root access, so setting up a
> Python web application is much easier.

     That makes it possible, but not easier.  If you're just running a
typical web site with some "web 2.0" pages, forms, and a database,
it's probably easier to use PHP.  Administering a virtual machine
instance puts you in the system administration business.  With
PHP, the hosting service will routinely handle that for you.
You just create PHP pages, upload them, and the behind the scenes
machinery is someone else's problem.  If PHP breaks on shared hosting,
enough users will be screaming that it gets fixed.

				John Nagle