Lies in education [was Re: The "loop and a half"]

[Ben Bacarisse]

Chris Angelico <rosuav at gmail.com> writes:

> On Thu, Oct 12, 2017 at 7:42 AM, Ben Bacarisse <ben.usenet at bsb.me.uk> wrote:
>> Bill <BILL_NOSPAM at whoknows.net> writes:
>>
>>> Mikhail V wrote:
>>>>>>> [...] I'm not here to "cast stones", I like Python. I just think
>>>>>>> that you shouldn't cast stones at C/C++.
>>>>>> Not while PHP exists.  There aren't enough stones in the world...
>>>>>>
>>>>> PHP seems (seemed?) popular for laying out web pages.  Are their vastly
>>>>> superior options?
>>>> Python? Superior syntax for sure
>>>
>>> I believe that.  What accounts for the popularity of PHP then?
>>
>> Two things, probably.  First, it was almost always pre-installed even on
>> low-cost hosting.  Second, you could start very simply because it was
>> designed to be used embedded.  Tiny little bits of code could so
>> something -- not need for a "framework".
>>
>> Other languages were not always installed (I'm sure it's better these
>> days) and those that were (Perl almost always was) could not, by
>> default, be used embedded -- you had to generate the whole page.
>>
>> What is (or are) the Python way (or ways) to do it?
>
> Check out Django and Flask, the two most popular ways. I quite like
> Flask.

I see.  Both appear to be frameworks (I'd heard of Django).  Do you know
if they widely available on low-cost hosting packages?  (I don't think
they are on mine, but that's dirt-cheap because I don't use it for
anything important!)

One thing that helped PHP was that it could be used (and learned) in an
incremental way.  You could add a "this page last updated on..." text in
a line or two to an existing page.  Then a button to change the layout
or theme.  Then a simple form and so on.

Many professionals started that way.  In the early days, there ware few
other routes into the technical side of web authoring.  That helped to
cement PHP as the dominant technology because it was what they knew.

-- 
Ben.