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PHP vs Perl vs Python: What are the differences?

Introduction

In this article, I will provide an overview of the key differences between PHP, Perl, and Python. Each of these programming languages has its own strengths and characteristics that make them suitable for different purposes.

  1. Syntax and Readability: PHP follows a C-like syntax, which makes it relatively easy for developers who are familiar with languages like C, C++, or Java to pick it up quickly. Perl, on the other hand, has a more complex syntax with many special characters and regular expressions, which can make it harder to read and understand. Python, known for its simplicity and readability, uses indentation to define blocks of code, making it very easy to understand and maintain.

  2. Purpose and Usage: PHP was originally designed for server-side web development, specifically for creating dynamic web pages and scripts that interact with databases. Perl, initially developed as a scripting language for text manipulation, has a wide range of applications, including system administration, web development, and network programming. Python, a versatile language, can be used for web development, data analysis, scientific computing, artificial intelligence, and more.

  3. Community and Resources: PHP has a large and active community with extensive documentation and numerous online resources available. It has been widely used in the web development industry for many years, resulting in a large number of frameworks, libraries, and plugins. Perl has a strong community, particularly in the system administration and bioinformatics fields, and also has a wide range of modules available through CPAN (Comprehensive Perl Archive Network). Python has one of the largest and most supportive communities, with a plethora of well-documented libraries and frameworks for various purposes.

  4. Performance and Scalability: PHP is known for its fast execution and is optimized for web development tasks. It integrates well with web servers like Apache and has built-in support for connecting with databases. Perl, although slower compared to PHP, is highly flexible and can handle complex tasks efficiently. Python, while not as fast as some other languages, offers good performance and scalability, particularly with its optimized libraries for numerical and scientific computing.

  5. Ease of Learning: PHP is often considered one of the easiest languages to learn, especially for web development beginners. It has simple and intuitive constructs, making it accessible for newcomers. Perl, with its syntax complexity, can have a steeper learning curve, requiring more time and effort to grasp. Python, with its emphasis on code readability, has a gentle learning curve, making it suitable for beginners as well.

  6. Code Maintainability: PHP, being the dominant language for web development, is often criticized for its lack of clean code practices and maintainability. However, recent improvements have been made with frameworks like Laravel promoting better code organization and structure. Perl, due to its highly flexible nature and diverse coding styles, can lead to code that is difficult to maintain and understand. Python, with its clear and readable syntax, enforces good code organization and readability, resulting in easier code maintenance and collaboration.

In summary, PHP is widely used for server-side web development, Perl excels in system administration and text manipulation, while Python is versatile and suitable for a wide range of applications. Understanding the specific strengths and differences between these languages can help you choose the most appropriate one for your project.

Advice on Perl, PHP, and Python
Needs advice
on
DartDartFirebaseFirebase
and
PythonPython

I want to create a mobile-first e-commerce platform app. I think Dart and Flutter is a way for me to build cross-platform apps from a single codebase but I might be wrong so what do you guys think?

I also don't know what to do about the back-end. I mean managing the database of products and users. handing orders and invoices. I think Firebase can be an answer to my problems but how far I can go with firebase and its user authentication and database tools? Just firebase is enough for all my back-end needs?

What suits my needs, a relational database or a non-relational database?

Do I need to learn another programming language for handling back-end, like Python or Go?

I would appreciate your opinion. Thanks

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Replies (1)
Mohamed Reda
Recommends
on
DartDartFirebaseFirebase

Hi, I have 3 years with Flutter and I can see that Flutter with Firebase will be a good choice for you, Just start with Firebase, it's a little bit expensive when you have a lot of users, but there you will have some money to build your own API using any other language, and here I recommend Elixir or Python.

And about what you need to learn: - Dart - Flutter - State management for Flutter - Firebase

Then you can publish your app finally, and I wish you a happy published app :)

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Needs advice
on
FlutterFlutterPythonPython
and
SwiftSwift

Hello, I am still a student and would like to ask a question. Currently, I am developing in mobile development with Flutter in the frontend and Python in the backend part. Right now I have to make a choice about developing a mobile app or developing a backend to progress more professionally. My questions are as follows:

1) If I prefer the mobile application area, will I only work with the Ui/Ux developer with the front-end and code the designs in Swift Kotlin languages, am I responsible for the back-end software?

2) I have a product that generates new ideas so I like to control the development and work there because the backend is the brain, but are they independent from each other in the backend mobile application? Is the mobile app developer responsible for the backend software?

3) I don't like graphic design because I don't like it if it's not perfect and I get stressed. Am I responsible for the graphic design in the mobile app?

4) Is a mobile app developer also a backend developer?

I know these are very simple questions, but they are very important to me. Thanks for your answers.

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Replies (3)
Benjamín Cáceres
Software Developer at Empirica Consultores · | 5 upvotes · 124.6K views
Recommends

Hi Hüseyin! 1-2) In my experience If you are a Mobile Applications Developer you will have the following responsabilities: - Develop (not designing) both functionality and screens of the app you are working - Consume (not develop) third party or self company owned APIs or Backend services - Distribution tasks. - Mantainance tasks. Now, there will always be companies wishing you know the whole thing (ui/ux, backend, frontend, mobile, cd/ci, data science, etc.). And of course it will be helpful for you to know a little bit of the stuff around mobile development, but it's not very common since it's not part of the responsabilities of a mobile app dev.

3) No, you are not responsable for the designs of your application, that's why companies have Product designers, ux designers, ui designers for preparing the screens, logos, color palettes, etc for products. As a developer your job is to see and examine the designs and take them from Figma, InVision, Zeplin, etc to the Code editor.

4) This is the thing, if you are working as a Mobile Developer you might know about Mobile development, not backend, not frontend, not ui ux. BUT if you know a little about backend that might be helpful although backend should not be your responsability.

I hope this makes sense to you. Cheers!

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Jake Hawken
Senior iOS Developer at Grailed · | 4 upvotes · 120.6K views
Recommends
on
SwiftSwiftXcodeXcode

As a mobile developer, I'm usually a member of a larger team and it's usually another person's responsibility to develop the backend/API, and another person's to do the UX/design. Very very few teams use cross-platform tools like Flutter or React Native, because tools like those tend to make mediocre apps that scale poorly and are impossible to debug, so make sure to get familiar with Swift/iOS or Kotlin/Android (or both).

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Preeti Yuankrathok
Software Consultant at CODIUM · | 2 upvotes · 95.9K views
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Hi! I think most of your questions led to these answers:

  • Mobile software developers don't responsible for the back-end part, or even graphic design. Of course, the back-end part should be done by a back-end developer. The graphic design, I'd say that if you work on a start-up, you might be the one who does since there isn't much manpower there, but in the larger company, they would have a designer especially in UI/UX. You'll have a mockup for the application that you need to follow. As a developer, you're expected to code, not design.

  • I've said that the responsibility isn't yours, but of course, you'll have an advantage over others if you know UI/UX, or back-end as well. That would help you a lot to be a good mobile developer.

Good luck!

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Sadie Flick
Needs advice
on
JavaJavaJavaScriptJavaScript
and
PythonPython

Generally speaking, what are the most important things you expect a junior developer to know and be able to do from day 1 in your respective tech stack? Firm grasp of OOP? SQL? MVC? ORM? Algorithms and Datastructures? Understanding CRUD & the request response cycle? Database design? framework familiarity? Postman? Deployment? TDD? Git? Language-specific knowledge? Other things?

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Replies (5)
Prashant Singh Ahluwalia
Head of Engineering - AIOps at Microsoft · | 13 upvotes · 293.7K views
Recommends
at

Start with building a solid understanding of computer science fundamentals. Understand the basics of building blocks - memory, processing, storage, networking. Understand what CPU bound, memory bound, I/O bound, network bound processes are. Understand the cost of accessing data from Memory vs. Disk vs Network. Understand how multiple CPU threads help in optimizing the performance of a single machine.

Build expertise on a programming language. You may pick any language of your choice. I would recommend starting with Java / Python. Make sure you know one language really well. Build a strong understanding of Data Structures and Algorithms. You should be able to develop an intuition on when to use what. You may practice DS and Algorithm problems, using the language of your choice, on a competitive coding platform (e.g. Leetcode) or by building your own App!

Next, get familiar with basic cloud computing and distributed system concepts. Here is a good resource for that - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p7NkTUyEE1o&ab_channel=JeffreyRichter If you understand the computer science fundamentals well, you will be able to apply those concepts here as well.

Hope it helps!

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Recommends

Ability to read code and willingness to try to reason flow of operations and information. Tools and technologies change, one doesn't need to have them in toolbelt from day one. All things you name are relevant in some contexts, so it's not bad to understand them.

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Luan Himmlisch
Recommends

Just learn to learn. Learn to search and develop your logical thinking, that's all you need. No books, no deep study of how computers work, just logic and willingness to learn

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Recommends

For me, it is less of a specific technology you know (although I would prefer you have some knowledge of some of my team stack). It is more the way you get into a problem, the eagerness to learn more, the true sincerity to say "I don't know", the open mind to find solutions in different ways and the "Yes we can" mentality no matter how hard it is.

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Recommends

Most employers don't expect from you to know how to implement CI/CD or any other funcy stuff. As junior developer you should focus on building a good toolset of good software practices & principles. Your soft skills are important as well. Learn about soft skills. Be eager to learn, be humble and show you talent and your creativity through your work. If you want to become a good developer ( at first) and a star engineer (at a later stage) then computer programming (coding) is your number one priority . Coding is like painting. Putting aside your talent, you have to practice a lot and improve your outcome each time. As junior developer you can learn how to write good code by studying existing code found in public git repositories (i e , github). As junior developer you should study some good software principles (i.e., DRY, KISS, YAGNI) and always recall them each time you write software code. As junior developer you should learn about coding standards and conventions. You will have to follow to your company's coding conventions (soon or later) as well as you will realize that you have to write code cosistent to the existing code base. At the end of the day, code consistency matters a lot. You have to improve your code day by day. If you manage to follow some good software practices you will find out that you will need an ORM to work with your database. Then you will realize that you need the X web framework to build your REST API etc. To sum up, you will start building a toolset with a single programming language and some good software practices & principles and then you will put new tools in it day-by-day.

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Needs advice
on
ElixirElixirGolangGolang
and
PythonPython

Hi! I'm currently studying Flutter for mobile apps, but I also have a demand to automate some tasks on the web and create backends' for my apps, so thinking about which one of those could be better? Considering the performance and how easy it's to learn and create stuff? (I'm already familiar with .NET stack but want something more "simple" to write)

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Replies (4)
Amit Mor
Software Architect at Payoneer · | 5 upvotes · 218.4K views
Recommends
on
PythonPython

Definitely Python. Lots of libraries, dead simple syntax. Lots of code examples and reference projects. Elixir is pure functional and takes time to grasp the concepts. Go is great, with simple syntax and performant runtime, but more strict as it is statically typed. For quick coding, nothing beats Python. As you come from .net I’d consider similar approach and be considering Java with SpringBoot as it makes Java faster and much more fun to code web servers

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Recommends
on
ElixirElixir

Elixir really has a good performance for the web (and in general). Its framework Phoenix for the web is a great tool, easy to install and to use, with features for websockets (and Pub/Sub) or LiveView to write reactive and real time app with only HTML (and Elixir) so basically everything is in one place

It can take some time to learn a few things in Elixir but I really think it's worth it, and it's very easy to go distributed and concurrent with Elixir. Also it's easier to code quickly with some features like the pattern matching or some operators like the pipe or the capture one

And in the case you need it you can still connect and interface Python and Elixir pretty quickly, and now Elixir has a lot of different frameworks : web, embedded or even neural networks now

Never went far with Go but I have some trouble with its syntax, I find it a bit messy

I don't have a lot of experience with the web with Python but I don't have a good experience with the little I did

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Recommends
on
GolangGolangPythonPython

Judging your previous experience we will benefit from Golang in terms of portability and speed. If you want to go simplier use Python. If it's only scripts use Python.

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Shivam kr Shiv

Hey Vitor, You can use Node and Express JS to create a backend for your app. You can create REST APIS to connect your front end with the backend. It is a very simple and scalable solution for building backend web apps.

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Needs advice
on
JavaJavaJavaScriptJavaScript
and
PythonPython

I'm making my university community web service with a team. (6 members myself included)

And we decided to use JavaScript, HTML, CSS (for sure, it's the basic of websites) but couldn't decide for the back end part.

There are tons of languages, tools, etc., but I'm really new to programming, so I'd like to get some help to figure out what tools we need.

So my question is this: are there any good examples of web community services we can mimic the tools or get an insight from them?

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Replies (6)
Recommends
on
DjangoDjangoPythonPython

Since you're following Python, I would recomend using Django as your main back-end language. If you know Python it would be a great experience. Django is well documented on their official website: https://www.djangoproject.com/ I would also use React for front-end as well. Also this article is worth reading, I think progressive web app is something worth learning these days: https://web.dev/progressive-web-apps/ Hope that helps :)

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Since your team is already using JavaScript, there's a great number of examples for backend services written with NodeJS. I'd recommend using Firebase, or any backend as a service (you can use that term to find alternatives), for setting up your backend as it is much easier for newer people to understand and lets you focus on your core application logic, and not provisioning servers, databases, etc.

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anas mattar
Technical Lead at DPO International · | 2 upvotes · 244.1K views
Recommends
on
JavaScriptJavaScript

Since you're team is already using JavaScript, there are alot of examples and open source projects written with NodeJs, so I preffer this language in your backend application and also I am recommended using Mongo DB with It for saving data in it, and also for your frontend application I am recommanded using VueJs.

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Nash Nziramasanga
Software Developer at Billow Software · | 1 upvotes · 244K views

Since you are already using JavaScript on the front end it would be easy to adopt the MERN (MongoDB, Express, React, NodeJS) stack which s all javascript based making it easy to transfer knowledge with the backend and front end

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Jamal Abdinasir
Product manager at abdinasirjamal171@gmail.com · | 1 upvotes · 244.3K views
Recommends

Kindly I don't find any help that solve this mystery I need more help if it will happen

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Hüseyin Özkılıç
Senior Full-Stack Developer at RADSoft · | 1 upvotes · 243.9K views
Recommends
on
JavaScriptJavaScriptLaravelLaravel

Make it simple, most of projects doesnt need a AI, ML or big algorithms. If your project just serving end users take it to the web ready compatible. (Javascript, .Net, PHP Laravel)

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Needs advice
on
C++C++JavaScriptJavaScript
and
PythonPython

Hello, I am interested in learning how to program. I am a beginner, and many articles saying I should go with Python if I am new to programming. I considered Lua a long time ago, but for my career, I believe major programming languages should be better for me. I'm considering Python at this moment, but if you have other tools I should use, let me know.

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Replies (3)
Pat Fitzner
Recommends
on
PythonPython

Although Lua is a very simple,efficient, elegant and welcoming language, Python is extremely versatile. Therefore, if you want to get into programming without a defined direction, Python is the way to go. It has a lot of libraries, the ability to do anything and it is closer to other languages than Lua is (yeah I know about Lua and C, but from a learner's point of view, it makes sense). Additionally, Python will be a marketable skill, but I for one have not yet seen job offers for Lua devs.

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Recommends
on
C langC langC++C++C#C#JavaJava

The language you choose is also dependant on the type of career / area of programming you wish to focus on: Web Based and mobile applicaitons I would lean towards Java, PC Applications I tend to like C#, Embedded industry C, C++

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anas mattar
Technical Lead at DPO International · | 2 upvotes · 221.5K views
Recommends

my advice , you should answer me for this question, what do you like to work: web base or mobile native or cross platform. if you like web base you should choose PHP or ASP.net or Node.js or if you like mobile native you should decide Android or IOS platform and else if you like cross platfrom you should learn Flutter with dart language. thanks

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Needs advice
on
JavaJavaJavaScriptJavaScript
and
PHPPHP

Hi there. I'm looking to build an employee time tracker web app. This should also be optimized for mobile. I'm trying to figure out what the best stack is for this. I have knowledge of Java, JavaScript, some C#. I don't mind learning a new language for this purpose. Any help or advice would be really awesome! Thanks.

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Replies (6)
Stephen Gheysens
Lead Solutions Engineer at Inscribe · | 14 upvotes · 1.8M views
Recommends
on
JavaScriptJavaScript

Hi Otensia! I'd definitely recommend using the skills you've already got and building with JavaScript is a smart way to go these days. Most platform services have JavaScript/Node SDKs or NPM packages, many serverless platforms support Node in case you need to write any backend logic, and JavaScript is incredibly popular - meaning it will be easy to hire for, should you ever need to.

My advice would be "don't reinvent the wheel". If you already have a skill set that will work well to solve the problem at hand, and you don't need it for any other projects, don't spend the time jumping into a new language. If you're looking for an excuse to learn something new, it would be better to invest that time in learning a new platform/tool that compliments your knowledge of JavaScript. For this project, I might recommend using Netlify, Vercel, or Google Firebase to quickly and easily deploy your web app. If you need to add user authentication, there are great examples out there for Firebase Authentication, Auth0, or even Magic (a newcomer on the Auth scene, but very user friendly). All of these services work very well with a JavaScript-based application.

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Recommends
on
JavaScriptJavaScript

As you have knowledge of Javascript, I would go towards Vue/React in Frontend and Node (with suitable framework) with backend. From my point of view Java would be too bloated for suggested kind of an app. I myself use PHP as a backend a lot and React as frontend but moving thoughts towards full stack javascript world.

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Recommends
on
JavaScriptJavaScriptPHPPHP

php is the best for beginners, and one of the best for web development at all, all the host servers can handle it, a basic knowledge in java is not enough for build a web site, but a basic knowledge in php is enough. learn php basics and oop and mvc design pattern or any framework like Laravel (optional), and javascript for frontend (a framework like React or Angular is optional but good) and you will build any web site you want.

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pramod shirsath
Founder at Supra Software Solutions · | 4 upvotes · 240.3K views

We migrated from PHP to Angular/PHP to Angular/Node to React/Node/AWS Lambda. React/Node(Typescript)/Lambda seems to be good so far as we have developed few applications (large and small) using this stack so far. React/Node/Lambda is also good for mobile. If you are planning to use AWS, you can use the S3 bucket to store the frontend and Lambda or EC2 for backend APIs.

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pramod shirsath
Founder at Supra Software Solutions · | 2 upvotes · 240.3K views
Recommends

We migrated from PHP to Angular/PHP to Angular/Node to React/Node/AWS Lambda. React/Node(Typescript)/Lambda seems to be good so far as we have developed few applications (large and small) using this stack so far. React/Node/Lambda is also good for mobile. If you are planning to use AWS, you can use the S3 bucket to store the frontend and Lambda or EC2 for backend APIs.

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Brandon Miller
Recommends

For just a time tracker app? I'd recommend going with a cloud-based approach. A couple serverless functions in whatever language you choose, and the front end can be a static website hosted inside a storage service (blob for Azure, bucket for AWS, etc). This will ultimately probably save you a little time, and them a little money on hosting.

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Brayden W
Needs advice
on
GolangGolangPythonPython
and
RustRust

Hey, 👋

My name is Brayden. I’m currently a Frontend React Developer, striving to move into Fullstack so I can expand my knowledge.

For my main backend language, I am deciding between Python, Rust, and Go. I’ve tried each of them out for about an hour and currently, I like Python and Rust the most. However, I’m not sure if I’m missing out on something!

If anyone has advice on these technologies, I’d love to hear it!

Thanks.

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Replies (4)
Recommends
on
GolangGolangPythonPython

Rust is still in low demand. It's a great language but you'll have a hard time finding jobs. Go is the mix of both Rust and Python. Great language with modern features, fast, scalable, fun to write, and at the same time it has high demand (not as much as python).

Python on the other hand is a language that you can't go wrong with. Look around you and see what your job market prefers. If there isn't much difference to you personally, pick the one with more demand.

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All of these are solid options, however considering your expertise currently, I would probably suggest Node.JS considering your past experience with JS. However Python offers a similar development environment to JS in my opinion, and Go is a good sort of intermediate between Rust and Node.JS and Python. It's fast, but not as fast as Rust, and offers a development experience that combines C-styled languages (like Rust), and Python-y languages... So: Rust for the fastest, Node for familiarity, Python for ease of development, and Go for a good middle ground. I have used all in personal projects... If you use Go, I suggest a easy to use web server framework like Fiber.

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Akihito KIRISAKI
Recommends
on
PythonPythonRustRust

Rust is a challenging choice, but worth to be chosen. It has strong memory-safety and type-safety, this gives you no bother about those errors. However, static typing languages often slow our developing speed down in early stage. In that case, it's effective to write prototype in an easy language like Python, and rewrite it in a hard language. It's important not to be afraid to throw away first code you write.

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Donald Tran
Software Engineer at T-Mobile · | 3 upvotes · 410.6K views
Recommends
on
RustRust

The other answers are excellent, but I want to be a bit of a contrarian and say you should learn Rust. While the number of jobs for it are (relatively) low(er), it is certainly expanding and you'd be surprised at which companies do use Rust (Discord, for example, is starting to move away from Golang to Rust!).

But the main reason is that learning Rust itself will teach you a lot about systems design (/backend) because of its borrow checker. You can try out a lot of ideas and make a lot mistakes and the borrow checker will always be there guide you to a better solution (thereby teaching you in the process).

Also, I wouldn't underestimated how important managing memory (and memory safety) is. While Golang is great in some ways, it doesn't protect you from pushing memory leaks into production. And eventually you'll come upon a scenario where you'll have to make your Python code run faster and the optimizations you'd have to do won't look pretty (or be very Pythontic).

And Rust is freakin fast! If you have Rust, you wouldn't need any other language for the backend (or any other systems level code). Check this blog post: https://blog.discord.com/why-discord-is-switching-from-go-to-rust-a190bbca2b1f?gi=dd8bc5d669d. Discord found that even after spending months optimizing Golang code it still wasn't fast enough. But unoptimized, first-draft Rust code was (is) faster by an order of magnitude!

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piusha kalyana
Senior software engineer at Getir · | 13 upvotes · 378.9K views
Needs advice
on
GolangGolangPHPPHP
and
PythonPython

Hi

I want to build a tool to check asset availability (video, images, etc.) from third-party vendors. These vendors have APIs. However, this process should run daily basis and update the database with the status. This is a kind of separate process. I need to know what will be the good approach and technology for this?

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Replies (5)
Hannes Holst
at 365 Consulting Services Ltd. · | 7 upvotes · 377.7K views
Recommends
on
PythonPython

hi - I think this depends on how you want to provide the information to the user. If you want to build a Wordpress-plugin: PHP If you want to build your own website: Python+Django / PHP / JavaScript+Node.js As Desktop application?

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anas mattar
Technical Lead at DPO International · | 3 upvotes · 364.6K views
Recommends
on
PHPPHP

for what technologies you should use, this is depend on what technology do you prefer? your should think best structuing for your code because each API vendor has different to a nother one so it's better no merege code vendores together. your code must be using SOLID principle pattern and some design pattern such as Factory Pattern

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Recommends
on
GolangGolang

The major advantage of Go is that you can run queries in parallel. Fire off a Go thread for each vendor and each thread can check the availability of assets from a specific vendor and update the database. Go supports hundreds of threads with ease.

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anas mattar
Technical Lead at DPO International · | 1 upvotes · 360.7K views
Recommends
on
C#C#GolangGolangPHPPHP

your decision depend on what language do you know. if you know php you can use laravel framework

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Oluwafemi Lawrence
Recommends
on
GolangGolang

Hi, I would recommend Go because of strongly-typed nature which makes a developer more productive as it is less error prone compared to the other dynamic-typed language. Go also has cron-job library(powered by goroutines) that can help with your automated tasks.

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Needs advice
on
PowerShellPowerShell
and
PythonPython

I am technical support. I work daily with Windows Server / Exchange, Active directory. I would like to learn scripting and automation to make my life easier. I just started learning PowerShell but not really sure about the correct study path from where I can start. I am taking some courses on Udemy and YouTube. Is it enough?

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Replies (3)
Recommends
on
PowerShellPowerShell

My first foray into programming was with powershell and it continues to be an enormous help for me in my career (caveat being that I have primarily worked on windows boxes). That being said, PowerShell is a weird language that has some unique syntax and operators that don't translate well to other languages. Python is weird too, but for other reasons (spacing!). I suspect you'll get more immediate benefit spending some time on Powershell since your working in an environment that fully supports the ps toolset.

As for learning, I read "PowerShell Toolmaking in a Month of Lunches" and found that helpful. However, I think your course of study is sufficient. Think the most return for the effort was just messing around in the powershell IDE on my local computer and working the Microsoft documentation.

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Witt Allen
DevOps Engineer at Provisions Group · | 5 upvotes · 127.9K views
Recommends
on
PowerShellPowerShell

Taking courses on Udemy and YouTube will be helpful I'm sure, but don't neglect the power of practice. If you work largely with Windows right now, pick powershell. Take opportunities to convert the knowledge you already have (example: unlocking an account in Active Directory or adding an email alias in Exchange) from a manual process to a powershell method. Sometimes that's a single cmdlet (Unlock-AdAccount) and sometimes it's a script.

Once you have a good understanding of variables, the pipeline, and foreach loops, you'll be in a position to accelerate your learning. Looking up Microsoft docs is part of the process :)

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Recommends
on
PowerShellPowerShell

I would consider reading "Powershell for sysadmins" from No Starch Press. Start small with the ActiveDirectory and AzureAd modules. Start with read only operations like pulling AD Group Members into a variable and then pipe that variable into a .csv file with Export-CSV cmdlet. Once you feel more comfortable with the syntax, specific cmdlets, and piping data start looking at specific techniques like using hashtables (dictionaries) and globbing. From there you can begin to construct your own functions and modules. Just start small and don't let yourself get overwhelmed.

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Decisions about Perl, PHP, and Python
Olivier B Deland
Web Developer, Consultant at ConseilsWeb · | 13 upvotes · 139.5K views

Coming from a C/C++ background, I picked up PHP 20 years ago. Today, the language is still in constant evolution while still having a stable base. It powers all of my backend project. It is fast to prototype and get started, and is supported almost everywhere.

Python and Node.js do not provide anything that PHP cannot already offer, so there is no point for me to switch to those language. Mature framework like Laravel provides real ease and speed of development to kick-start any new web project, be it a simple API or a robust ERP running on server-less architecture. There are libraries available for machine learning, crypto, web3 and pretty much anything you can think of.

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Jacob M
Brand Director at NCINTEV · | 15 upvotes · 120.8K views

I’m well aware of the hate that php receives and some of it is well warranted. But the ease of implementation for so many features that I find myself needed on a daily basis is head and shoulders above what I could achieve with JavaScript on my backend. I can do more without the need of frameworks but I still have many options if I want that. Especially with database handling I find many of the complainants about php to be pure rhetoric.

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We chose Rust for our web API because the Warp crate makes it easy to compose high-performance and asynchronous APIs. Rust allows us to achieve high development velocity because it provides zero-cost abstractions and enforces strict type and memory-safety checks with high quality and actionable error messages.

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Python will be used in order to train machine learning models from our data. We chose python for this task because it is the most common language for machine learning. It has very performant libraries like numpy and scikit-learn that provide functionality for manipulating data and creating models that you cannot get in other languages like JavaScript and Java. Additionally, it is the most familiar language for us to use for machine learning because almost every machine learning course teaches ml using python.

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Javascript will be used for both our frontend and backend on the web service. JavaScript is ubiquitous as the language to use for the frontend. For the backend, we decided to create our server using JavaScript because of its easy setup; using Express we can create a server in just a few short lines of code. It is simple not only to run the server locally, but to host it as well because any major service will support the language. JavaScript is a simple language to code in and familiar among our team members, so using it will help speed up development. Using JavaScript allows us to use NodeJS and npm, so we can use packages to easily set up the server, connect to a database and other convenient utilities. We also considered Python for our server. It is also very simple to create a server in Python, especially using flask. However, the extra familiarity with the JavaScript language and the ease of using packages were enough for us to pick JavaScript as our language of choice.

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MACHINE LEARNING

Python is the default go-to for machine learning. It has a wide variety of useful packages such as pandas and numpy to aid with ML, as well as deep-learning frameworks. Furthermore, it is more production-friendly compared to other ML languages such as R.

Pytorch is a deep-learning framework that is both flexible and fast compared to Tensorflow + Keras. It is also well documented and has a large community to answer lingering questions.

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Python: The top language in machine learning area because of the various open-source libraries. Our company will rely on open-source libraries for development as well.

Amazon EC2: Training machine learning model needs to be running on independent 3rd party computing resources. AWS EC2 can provide a variety of virtual computing resources based on what users need.

React+Javascript: React is popular and everyone in the team is familiar with it. React is an open-source JavaScript library that is used for building user interfaces specifically for single-page applications.

ExpressJS: Everyone in the team has used expressJS for development. It can create server-side web applications faster and smarter.

Amazon RDS: relational database service and free to use

Postman: Tool for the team to test API endpoint.

Circle CI: is lightweight and open. Therefore for faster deployment jobs, one can execute their codes on CircleCI as it deploys on scalable and robust cloud servers.

Docker: Easily pack, ship, and run any application as a lightweight, portable, self-sufficient container, which can run virtually anywhere

Github+Git: Julian is from Github so no other choice for us 😎

Slack: Everyone likes it and it's free

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Python: Top one language in machine learning area because of the various open source libraries. Our company will rely on the open source libraries for development as well.

Amazon EC2: Training machine learning model needs to be ran on independent 3rd party computing resources. AWS EC2 can provide variety of virtual computing resources based on what users need.

React+Javascript: React is popular and everyone in the team is familiar with it. React is an open-source JavaScript library that is used for building user interfaces specifically for single-page applications.

ExpressJS: Everyone in the team has used expressJS for development. It can create server-side web applications faster and smarter.

Amazon RDS: relational database service and free to use

Postman: Tool for the team to test API end point.

Circle CI: is lightweight and open. Therefore for faster deployment jobs, one can execute their codes on CircleCI as it deploys on scalable and robust cloud servers.

Docker: Easily pack, ship, and run any application as a lightweight, portable, self-sufficient container, which can run virtually anywhere

Github+Git: Julian is from Github so no other choice for us 😎

Slack: Everyone likes it and it's free

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2 major challenges for which JS comes as a handy tool, 1st its integration with AWS SDK was at par as Python and .net and the solution comes to hand with the reverse proxy solutions for the application to be running as an instance taking the situation of inside organization demography of resources expertise over the technology.

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Alexandre Desroches
Founder & Developper at Finance D · | 71 upvotes · 375.1K views

I had a goal to create the simplest accounting software for Mac and Windows to help small businesses in Canada.

This led me to a long 2 years of exploration of the best language that could provide these features:

  • Great overall productivity
  • International wide-spread usage for long-term sustainability and easy to find documentation
  • Versatility for creating websites and desktop softwares
  • Enjoyable developper experience
  • Ability to create good looking modern UIs
  • Job openings with this language

I tried Python, Java, C# and C++ without finding what I was looking for.

When I discovered Javascript, I really knew it was the right language to use. Thinking of this today makes me realize even more how great a decision this has been to learn, use and master Javascript. It has been a fun, challenging and productive road on which I am still satisfied.

Obviously, when I refer to Javascript, it is not without implying the vast ecosystem around it. For me, JS is a whole universe in which almost every imaginable tools exist. It's awesome - for real. Thanks to all the contributors which have made it possible.

To be even clearer about how intense I am with Javascript, let's just say that my first passion was music. Until, I find coding with Javascript! Yep, I know!

So in conclusion, I chose Javascript because it is versatile, enjoyable, widely used, productive for both desktop softwares and websites with ability to create modern great looking user interfaces (assuming HTML and CSS are involved) and finally there are job openings.

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Pros of Perl
Pros of PHP
Pros of Python
  • 72
    Lots of libraries
  • 66
    Open source
  • 61
    Text processing
  • 54
    Powerful
  • 49
    Unix-style
  • 47
    Regex
  • 37
    Stable
  • 32
    Concise syntax
  • 29
    Hackerish
  • 22
    Easy to use
  • 16
    Swiss army chainsaw
  • 13
    Code Less Do More
  • 12
    CPAN
  • 9
    Freedom
  • 8
    All purpose
  • 5
    Readability
  • 5
    Familiar
  • 5
    Many ways to do it
  • 5
    Community
  • 4
    Object-Oriented
  • 4
    Modular
  • 4
    Smart (does alot for you)
  • 3
    Postmodern
  • 3
    It's the best one-off task language
  • 2
    For a man
  • 2
    Good man pages
  • 1
    Auto case variables
  • 1
    Single Source Library (CPAN)
  • 1
    Multi-threaded support
  • 1
    Multiparadigm
  • 1
    C-style
  • 1
    Hashes
  • 953
    Large community
  • 819
    Open source
  • 767
    Easy deployment
  • 487
    Great frameworks
  • 387
    The best glue on the web
  • 235
    Continual improvements
  • 185
    Good old web
  • 145
    Web foundation
  • 135
    Community packages
  • 125
    Tool support
  • 35
    Used by wordpress
  • 34
    Excellent documentation
  • 29
    Used by Facebook
  • 23
    Because of Symfony
  • 21
    Dynamic Language
  • 17
    Easy to learn
  • 17
    Cheap hosting
  • 15
    Very powerful web language
  • 14
    Awesome Language and easy to implement
  • 14
    Fast development
  • 14
    Because of Laravel
  • 13
    Composer
  • 12
    Flexibility, syntax, extensibility
  • 9
    Easiest deployment
  • 8
    Readable Code
  • 8
    Fast
  • 7
    Short development lead times
  • 7
    Most of the web uses it
  • 7
    Worst popularity quality ratio
  • 7
    Fastestest Time to Version 1.0 Deployments
  • 6
    Simple, flexible yet Scalable
  • 6
    Faster then ever
  • 5
    Open source and large community
  • 4
    Cheap to own
  • 4
    Has the best ecommerce(Magento,Prestashop,Opencart,etc)
  • 4
    Is like one zip of air
  • 4
    Open source and great framework
  • 4
    Large community, easy setup, easy deployment, framework
  • 4
    Easy to use and learn
  • 4
    Easy to learn, a big community, lot of frameworks
  • 4
    Great developer experience
  • 4
    I have no choice :(
  • 2
    Hard not to use
  • 2
    Walk away
  • 2
    Interpreted at the run time
  • 2
    FFI
  • 2
    Safe the planet
  • 2
    Used by STOMT
  • 2
    Fault tolerance
  • 2
    Great flexibility. From fast prototyping to large apps
  • 1
    Simplesaml
  • 1
    Bando
  • 1
    Secure
  • 1
    It can get you a lamborghini
  • 0
    Secure
  • 1.2K
    Great libraries
  • 962
    Readable code
  • 847
    Beautiful code
  • 788
    Rapid development
  • 690
    Large community
  • 438
    Open source
  • 393
    Elegant
  • 282
    Great community
  • 272
    Object oriented
  • 220
    Dynamic typing
  • 77
    Great standard library
  • 60
    Very fast
  • 55
    Functional programming
  • 49
    Easy to learn
  • 45
    Scientific computing
  • 35
    Great documentation
  • 29
    Productivity
  • 28
    Easy to read
  • 28
    Matlab alternative
  • 24
    Simple is better than complex
  • 20
    It's the way I think
  • 19
    Imperative
  • 18
    Free
  • 18
    Very programmer and non-programmer friendly
  • 17
    Powerfull language
  • 17
    Machine learning support
  • 16
    Fast and simple
  • 14
    Scripting
  • 12
    Explicit is better than implicit
  • 11
    Ease of development
  • 10
    Clear and easy and powerfull
  • 9
    Unlimited power
  • 8
    It's lean and fun to code
  • 8
    Import antigravity
  • 7
    Print "life is short, use python"
  • 7
    Python has great libraries for data processing
  • 6
    Although practicality beats purity
  • 6
    Now is better than never
  • 6
    Great for tooling
  • 6
    Readability counts
  • 6
    Rapid Prototyping
  • 6
    I love snakes
  • 6
    Flat is better than nested
  • 6
    Fast coding and good for competitions
  • 6
    There should be one-- and preferably only one --obvious
  • 6
    High Documented language
  • 5
    Great for analytics
  • 5
    Lists, tuples, dictionaries
  • 4
    Easy to learn and use
  • 4
    Simple and easy to learn
  • 4
    Easy to setup and run smooth
  • 4
    Web scraping
  • 4
    CG industry needs
  • 4
    Socially engaged community
  • 4
    Complex is better than complicated
  • 4
    Multiple Inheritence
  • 4
    Beautiful is better than ugly
  • 4
    Plotting
  • 3
    Many types of collections
  • 3
    Flexible and easy
  • 3
    It is Very easy , simple and will you be love programmi
  • 3
    If the implementation is hard to explain, it's a bad id
  • 3
    Special cases aren't special enough to break the rules
  • 3
    Pip install everything
  • 3
    List comprehensions
  • 3
    No cruft
  • 3
    Generators
  • 3
    Import this
  • 3
    If the implementation is easy to explain, it may be a g
  • 2
    Can understand easily who are new to programming
  • 2
    Batteries included
  • 2
    Securit
  • 2
    Good for hacking
  • 2
    Better outcome
  • 2
    Only one way to do it
  • 2
    Because of Netflix
  • 2
    A-to-Z
  • 2
    Should START with this but not STICK with This
  • 2
    Powerful language for AI
  • 1
    Automation friendly
  • 1
    Sexy af
  • 1
    Slow
  • 1
    Procedural programming
  • 0
    Ni
  • 0
    Powerful
  • 0
    Keep it simple

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Cons of Perl
Cons of PHP
Cons of Python
  • 4
    Messy $/@/% syntax
  • 3
    No exception handling
  • 2
    Bad OO support
  • 2
    "1;"
  • 2
    No OS threads
  • 1
    Variables are global by default
  • 1
    Copy-on-create for interpreter-based threads
  • 1
    Barewords
  • 1
    Errors/warnings are ignored by default
  • 22
    So easy to learn, good practices are hard to find
  • 16
    Inconsistent API
  • 8
    Fragmented community
  • 6
    Not secure
  • 3
    No routing system
  • 3
    Hard to debug
  • 2
    Old
  • 53
    Still divided between python 2 and python 3
  • 28
    Performance impact
  • 26
    Poor syntax for anonymous functions
  • 22
    GIL
  • 19
    Package management is a mess
  • 14
    Too imperative-oriented
  • 12
    Hard to understand
  • 12
    Dynamic typing
  • 12
    Very slow
  • 8
    Indentations matter a lot
  • 8
    Not everything is expression
  • 7
    Incredibly slow
  • 7
    Explicit self parameter in methods
  • 6
    Requires C functions for dynamic modules
  • 6
    Poor DSL capabilities
  • 6
    No anonymous functions
  • 5
    Fake object-oriented programming
  • 5
    Threading
  • 5
    The "lisp style" whitespaces
  • 5
    Official documentation is unclear.
  • 5
    Hard to obfuscate
  • 5
    Circular import
  • 4
    Lack of Syntax Sugar leads to "the pyramid of doom"
  • 4
    The benevolent-dictator-for-life quit
  • 4
    Not suitable for autocomplete
  • 2
    Meta classes
  • 1
    Training wheels (forced indentation)

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What is Perl?

Perl is a general-purpose programming language originally developed for text manipulation and now used for a wide range of tasks including system administration, web development, network programming, GUI development, and more.

What is PHP?

Fast, flexible and pragmatic, PHP powers everything from your blog to the most popular websites in the world.

What is Python?

Python is a general purpose programming language created by Guido Van Rossum. Python is most praised for its elegant syntax and readable code, if you are just beginning your programming career python suits you best.

Need advice about which tool to choose?Ask the StackShare community!

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What tools integrate with Perl?
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Blog Posts

Sep 29 2020 at 7:36PM

WorkOS

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PythonDockerKubernetes+7
3
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PythonDockerKubernetes+14
12
2655
Oct 3 2019 at 7:13PM

Ably Realtime

JavaScriptPythonNode.js+8
5
3890
Aug 28 2019 at 3:10AM

Segment

PythonJavaAmazon S3+16
7
2624
JavaScriptPythonPubNub+4
7
1580
What are some alternatives to Perl, PHP, and Python?
Ruby
Ruby is a language of careful balance. Its creator, Yukihiro “Matz” Matsumoto, blended parts of his favorite languages (Perl, Smalltalk, Eiffel, Ada, and Lisp) to form a new language that balanced functional programming with imperative programming.
C lang
Java
Java is a programming language and computing platform first released by Sun Microsystems in 1995. There are lots of applications and websites that will not work unless you have Java installed, and more are created every day. Java is fast, secure, and reliable. From laptops to datacenters, game consoles to scientific supercomputers, cell phones to the Internet, Java is everywhere!
PowerShell
A command-line shell and scripting language built on .NET. Helps system administrators and power-users rapidly automate tasks that manage operating systems (Linux, macOS, and Windows) and processes.
JavaScript
JavaScript is most known as the scripting language for Web pages, but used in many non-browser environments as well such as node.js or Apache CouchDB. It is a prototype-based, multi-paradigm scripting language that is dynamic,and supports object-oriented, imperative, and functional programming styles.
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