Re: PHP, Zend, & mod_perl

[<srfrog]

Graeme,

I appreciate your thoughts and incentives, but you're going
off-topic here. there's a biased tone to your emails, so please
stop. a person asked for an objective comparison between 3
products, none of which is Roxen. i respectfully ask you to
stop the pedantic critizism and biased opinions. this is not
an apachec vs. roxen discussion. thanks.

Now, on to the subject...

I use both PHP and mod_perl heavily here are my observations:

PHP pros:
1) ease of use / small learning curve
2) very fast for small script
3) low resource footprint
4) easy to create / manipulate content with embedded code
5) MySQL support out of the box! (among many others)

mod_perl pros:
1) very fast for any sized scripts
2) vast library of options / extensions
3) DBI (need to say more?)
4) extends Apache functionality
5) small learning curve if you already know perl CGI's
   (no need to learn something new)
6) very fast

PHP cons:
1) slow with medium-large sized scripts
2) "make your own stuff" limited plugin options
3) datatype support is limited (ie., primitive arrays)
4) persistent transactions not supported (unless you get PHPLib)
   (well, you can always plug in mysql to do 'em, but sometimes
    this is not practical).

mod_perl cons:
1) huge memory footprint (get lots of ram)
2) screw up a module script and your server is toast.
3) if you dont know perl, you'll have a not-so-fun ride here.
   (although some people will argue perl is an easy language to
    learn, compared to php it's Haiku).

on PHP4 (Zend) ...

I've played with it and it does show great improvement. I guess
it's too early to comment, since it's still in the beta stage.
from what i've checked, it does solve all PHP-cons except #2,
but that one only time will fix.

i am sure i left a few pros/cons somewhere, please feel free
to aggregate to the list.



On Mon, 22 Nov 1999, Graeme B. Davis wrote:

> > Yeah, I gave a look at roxen, and maybe it does connect to mysql, but it
> > does not seem to fall into the arguement of PHP vs. mod-perl. It does not
> > appear to have a speed advantage, and its ease of use stops at ms windows
> > limitations.
> 
> Well then you didn't look hard enough.  Roxen is very powerful as well as
> easy to use.  Sites like Real.com use it with exorbitant hit rates and Roxen
> doesn't flinch where Apache just croaks.  It is in the same category as PHP
> and Mod-perl because it ultimately accomplishes the same things, so that's
> why I mentioned it.  It would be interesting to have some sort of comparison
> where a common application is developed for the 3 and then benchmarked to
> see some real-world results.  Roxen itself is interpreted in real time and
> beats servers that are precompiled in many tests.
> 
> The only problem is that people fear change and Apache is the most popular
> because it was the first and because of name-recognition.  Look at AMD, they
> have processors that beat Intel's finest, but end-lusers only hear Intel
> commercials so they think that a Pentium is the way to go. *shrug*
> 
> </rant> It's a monday... :)
> 
> > As to mod_perl vs PHP, it depends on the use. For fast one-database
> lookups
> > and "hello world" simple scripts, yeah PHP screams just as fast as
> mod_perl
> > and has a slight ease of use advantage.
> 
> > Once, however, you need to keep track of users shopping carts, inventory,
> > joined to brands and or categoories tables, all woven together neatly, you
> > really need mod_perl for real speed, reliability, and flexibility.
> 
> Again, easily tackled with Roxen ;)
> 
> > Two cents again
> > Jeremy Aaron Horland
> > Extropia Open-Source software
> > www.extropia.com
> > (yes v2.0 will be FULLY MySql realy)
>