Should Wikipedia's software be rewritten in Ruby on Rails? Options Rating

[GlassBeadGame]

I'm a rank beginner compared to many of you but PHP does seem to me to have a pretty workable set of functions for query strings, sessions, accessing manipulating MySQL, sorting, encrypting and doing many website chores.

PHP makes it very easy to write code that works; but PHP makes it very hard to write code that works well, and even more so to write code that works well and can be maintained. The problem with environments with low barriers to entry is that any tyro can show up, whip something half-assed together and then claim to be an expert. I think everyone here can understand how this can be a bad thing.

Other than concerns about speed and security I wouldn't even know what what "work well" would even mean. Of course I would never hold myself out as an expert and agree with your point why writing klug programs or pages might not be a good thing.

[gomi]

Hmmm I thought Python was faster than PHP and Perl ... Are you serious that yahoo's whole website is PHP? That's something. ... Odd they also use MySQL. I thought they might use some premium service like Oracle.

Python only seems faster because hardly anyone does anything of any scale or size in it.

Yes, Yahoo is mostly PHP, and they have always been the poster-child for MySQL scalability, it being "enterprise class" vs. Oracle, etc.

[dogbiscuit]

In the old days MySQL was a no no compared with PostGres, but the InnoDB storage engine resolved the problems by putting a proper engine in place rather than something that didn't do record locking. These days, though still slightly quirky, MySQL seems about as good as anything else - databases are commodity software really and the core functionality of a database isn't much different.

The only trouble I have with PHP is the slightly odd typing system so you sometimes get little oddities, and the DIY OOP stuff is rather odd. However, for knocking up a website it is good. The main problem is not in PHP per se but in trying to split out presentation from logic. All in all though, PHP is a practical, pragmatic language, unlike C++ which if you get involved in STL, boost and all that clever templating (as opposed to simple templating), simply gets unfathomable for not just your average programmer, but your better than average programmer*. C++ can end up being too dense - hidden language features mean that you cannot simply look at code and know what is going to happen.

Be grateful ColdFusion has just about died out.


* Me