Re: Re: PHP on the client

On Fri, 30 Jun 2000, Billy Harvey wrote: > Alex Black writes: > > huh? > > > > javascript is extremely specialized, and while I agree that it is not > > perfect, PHP and javascript are used for entirely different things. > > Javascript is for dealing with events on the cilent side, doing stuff like > > window spawns, and gute little active graphics apps... PHP is a burrly > > server side language for creating complex apps. > > > -- > > Alex Black, Head Monkey > > enigma@turingstudio.com > > That's my point really. Javascript is presently very useful for doing > stuff on the client side, but it can also be a very useful language on > the server side - it's just not that pleasant to use. PHP gained its > popularity on the server side mainly because of that ease of use, but > it obviously had to have some teeth in capabilities or it wouldn't be > where it is today. The logical next step to it now might be PHP > (extensions) on the client side. These would be PHP extensions that > could tell the client to do things that we presently send javascript > to it to do - return window size, preload images, mouseovers, > whatever. Programmers would still have to keep straight in their > heads what was operating on each side, but the > single-language-approach should make it easier for same programmers, > and it seems reasonable that this would lead to client-server > interaction that would be smoother than what we currently have, such > as smooth chat sessions, or even animation with the same quality as > swf, etc. It may seem that way, but one of PHP's strengths is that it doesn't matter what browser you use to access it. Mouseovers, preloading, and such are the job of JavaScript because that's the way it's supposed to be. It isn't PHP's job to tell the web client how to behave. And for my IMHO, JavaScript is a miserable server-side platform. I wouldn't wish that environment on anybody. Matt