PHP vs (Perl vs Java), technology- and career-wise
Kirk Is
layoff...but one option I might be interviewing for would involve great
heaps of PHP... is that likely to be a bad idea, career-wise? I'm already
worried I'm being seen as too "front endy"...and it brings up an issue
that's been bugging me lately; it seems that if someone asked me when I
would choose Java vs when I would choose Perl, my answer would center
around Java just seeming to lend itself to a more engineered, disciplined
approach, where Perl seems to be better for the quick and dirty. There are
certain other constraints as well, but considering you can write crap java
(and it seems like some quick batch files might cover up the Java
code/compile/need-an-object cycle) as well as disciplined Perl.
Any thoughts?
ObHack: I never did get around to making my crap homebrew webmail system
deal with attachments. I through in a "put this in a pine folder" link,
and developed a pattern of going to it in Pine, and saving any attachment
as www/foo.[attachment]--literally foo, which was easy to remember and
type when I went to view the file over the web. Well, not that easy to
type, because I had to erase the old filename, and of course that lost the
filename. So, easier to type: I could just make a "www/foo" directory,
and save the attachments there, and then click on it from the directory
listing. I did this simple hack one better with a Perl script that
displayed the same links, but sorted by reverse timestamp, so the newest
thing is always at top. Not only does it preserve the original filename,
but a new foo.doc doesn't overwrite an old foo.doc. Easier to type into
Pine as well, since I don't have to erase the filename. If I could just
figure out a while to add in \n's to the "start Pine with these comma
seperated keystrokes" command line, I could make it even simpler.
--
QUOTEBLOG: http://kisrael.com SKEPTIC MORTALITY: http://kisrael.com/mortal
"How do we stop an elephant if it goes berserk? What do we do? Do we use
an AK-47? An M-16? An AR-15?... Frankly, would that stop an elephant?
I really doubt it. Do they have a bazooka?" --US Senator Bob Smith
Eli the Bearded
> So, still looking for a (probably Java and/or Perl) job before my April 12
> layoff...but one option I might be interviewing for would involve great
> heaps of PHP... is that likely to be a bad idea, career-wise?
Who can say? I interviewed for a job asking for a Perl programmer and
ended up doing a lot more PHP, at least the first year. And I made
use of that. The site was 90% static HTML at first, now it is 100%
dynamic, mostly through the use of templates. My PHP template system
is to write a template to be used as an include() file, then each
HTML file sets variables and defines callbacks used by the template.
It was a skinnable site after about seven months, although that
feature has never been used publically.
> I'm worried I'm being seen as too "front endy"...and it brings up an issue
Well. Maybe. Around here light PHP code is done by the person doing
the HTML, and at least some of the heavier stuff is by me. So my code
does more CGI type stuff, and the other person's code does more template
and layout stuff.
> that's been bugging me lately; it seems that if someone asked me when I
> would choose Java vs when I would choose Perl, my answer would center
> around Java just seeming to lend itself to a more engineered, disciplined
> approach, where Perl seems to be better for the quick and dirty.
I don't like OO all that much, for the smae reason I avoid some of the
perl modules. It is too hard to know how efficient something is. But
that's me.
> Any thoughts?
I like how with both Perl and PHP you can easily (FSVO 'easy') write
extensions in C and then use them from the language.
> ObHack: I never did get around to making my crap homebrew webmail system
> deal with attachments. I through in a "put this in a pine folder" link,
I wrote a Perl script that saves attachments automatically to a spool
directory, the script is called from procmail. Old (slow) version at
http://www.cpan.org/authors/id/E/EL/ELIJAH/mimedump
ObHack:
How to ensure your visitors to the farm will always be up and dressed
to start chores at 7am: put a coop full of roosters right next to
their tent area. The roosters start at about 4am, but don't get really
annoying until 6am. They stay cooped up until 8:30 or so, after
breakfast.
(I just came back from being a parent on a four-day third grade farm
trip.)
Elijah
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http://www.covelo.net/agriculture/farm/pages/farms_lpf.shtml