RE: [PHP] PHP vs. ColdFusion

[snip] Anybody care to provide words of wisdom to me before I meet with her? I hate doing this, as I'm sure everybody has better things to do, but I *really* want to sell PHP. [/snip] 6. When to Use PHP [snip] How much control will you have over the deployment platform? PHP's one-size-fits-all approach to the php.ini file makes it hard to share servers with sites that were developed with different settings. [/snip] This is no longer (or was never) the case as multiple php.ini's can be configured. Not only that multiple versions of PHP can be run on the same machine. [snip] How many people will work on the site, now and in the future? PHP as a language lacks the features necessary to promote effective teamwork; the bigger your team, the greater the problems you'll have. [/snip] Any effective CVS will let you manage this well, no matter the language. [snip] How big will the site be, in terms of numbers of distinct pages? This is related to the previous item: the bigger the site, the greater your need will be for language features that promote teamwork. [/snip] Bzzzt. Thanks for playing (Same as above) [snip] How long will the site be expected to last? The longer it lasts, the more likely it is that significant design changes will be needed. If you use PHP in the obvious manner, major design changes are difficult. If you extend PHP with a templating system, whether ad hoc or carefully enforced, using PHP buys you little if anything. [/snip] Now it becomes obvious that the author had never used or attempted to use PHP in a collaborative enterprise environment. The above statement I would consider false. [snip] How experienced are the developers; and how complex will the site need to be? Experienced developers will find themselves hindered rather than helped by the language's simplicity. Inexperienced developers will find the simplicity a significant boon - but if you have inexperienced developers trying to develop a complicated dynamic site, you will soon run into other problems. [/snip] Again, I find this comment to be unfounded. Experienced developers are able to do great things with PHP because of the wealth of functions and the flexibility allowed. Inexperienced developers can generally be brought along very quickly so that the cost/benefit analysis leans towards the plus side very quickly. 7. Conclusions PHP is a convenient language for rapidly prototyping simple dynamic websites. Websites thus built can in many cases be deployed indefinitely, without spending time and money on refactoring code in a different language. PHP's simplicity makes it a good language for inexperienced programmers, such as those moving from a pure page-design rôle to a site development one. [snip] For more experienced developers, though, the language's simplicity rapidly turns into complexity, slowing down the development process. These developers are the ones who have the skills needed to build large and/or complex websites; using PHP for such sites therefore tends to be a net loss. This tendency is reinforced by PHP's lack of the linguistic features needed to promote working on large software projects. If your project is at all large or complex, it may be better to look elsewhere when choosing an implementation language. [/snip] Again, this is just not true and demonstrates the author's lack of working knowledge of the language and the deployment of the language at the time the article was written, much less today. We manage several millions of records each day with PHP in an enterprise situation and have no issue with complexity. [snip] In cases where PHP has been determined to be inappropriate, what language should be used? There is considerable choice here; few languages are as bad as PHP for doing serious development work. The author and his colleagues have had good results with Perl, and believe that languages such as C++, Java, and Python should serve equally well. [/snip] Again, the author demonstrates a completye lack of knowledge. PERL can be extremely complex, has a high learning curve, and lacks a certain finesse. All of the languages mentioned find their roots in C, including PHP. So the argument he makes here is a straw man arguement at best. Seriously, several corporations world-wide are using PHP at an enterprise level (a much bally-hooed but particularly worthless term) each and every day.