An interesting analysis of a Perl coders experiences with PHP. Some truths and some parts seem to be misconception.

Via Simons blogmarks, came across Experiences of Using PHP in Large Websites which is a little old (delivered to the UKUUG Linux Developers’ Conference back in July 2002).

IMO it fails to deliver anything significant in it’s stated aim: “[...] it is not clear how well PHP scales for use in larger commercial websites. This paper examines the issues in trying to do so.” but does serve as a useful document on the types of problems (practical and conceptual) Perl coders have when working with PHP.

Not interested in any language X is better than Y discussion (Sterling's been kind enough to pick me up on one such ill considered and badly researched moment).

Not even going to go into some of the misconceptions or abiguities in that article but just say that once you’ve got past this part when working with PHP: “the language’s simplicity rapidly turns into complexity, slowing down the development process.” you start exploring PHP as an Object Oriented language and development picks up again at a rapid pace.

Anyway, these days it’s common to work for companies that have embraced Open Source as a whole and expect developers to be comfortable in both Perl and PHP.

Along that lines there’s an excellent article in the Volume 0, Issue 7 of the Perl Review - “Paying Homage to Perl (PHP)” at the end which, despite the title, is more or less a Perl <=> PHP crossover reference, useful to coders of either and highlights the key similarities / differences between the two. Sadly it doesn’t go as far as Object Oriented Perl / PHP but it might help a few Perl coders avoid putting “global” at the start of all function declarations in PHP.