PHP versus Java blogging
Russell Beattie blogged on “Rampaging Computer Science” today. As a part of his post, he mentioned my use of WordPress on BillDay.com.
I did my best to respond in the comments to his blog, in which I wrote:
Though I love Java and have been working with it professionally for 8+ years now, I try not to be too overtly religious when it comes to languages and tools. Freeman Dyson is quoted as saying “A good engineer is a person who makes a design that works with as few original ideas as possible” and that’s pretty much my philosophy, too.
I try to use an appropriate tool for the job at hand, whether it’s Java, PHP, Perl, C, Fortran, whatever. (OK, so it’s thankfully been a loooong time for me since Fortran was an “appropriate tool for the job at hand”, but back in my aerospace and geophysics days… 🙂
There are certainly great blogging packages for Java (and Perl, and Python, etc.). Given my needs, WordPress was an appropriate tool.
What do you think? Am I committing a sacrilege by using WP instead of SnipSnap, Roller, or some other Java based blogging package? Click on Comments to share your thoughts.
Comments are closed.
BillDay.com 
You should be lynched from the nearest tree top!
Anyone else with positive thoughts? 😉
The right tool for the job.
I’m a Java developer: I wish I could use a Java weblog tool,
but my ISP only provides PHP on its servers, so I use a PHP weblog.
There are some constraints one cannot always overcome 🙂
I’ve started a ‘Groovy’ website which uses a PHP engine. You just get so much more choice!
As you said right tool, right job.
I’d be happy to answer any questions you have about blojsom. I’ll leave it at that to keep it fair and balanced 😉
Not saying anything about the quality of blojsom, which I know nothing about. From my point of view though I have to look at the comparitive functionality of something like Tiki. Horses for courses, if I want a blog and only a blog then maybe something like blojsom is what I would need. Java’s such a beast to work with that most Java web apps do something very well but are not functionally rich as a whole. Horses for courses again.
Java is a great language and we use it to develop our main product because we find it easier for larger web applications. However, PHP is supported on 99.9% of web hosting accounts whereas JSP/Servlets is much smaller. I’m so used to using a Java servlet container that I don’t think much about it but I’m sure the concept of a Java servlet container and all the issues that are associated with it are enough of a headache as well compared to PHP’s Apache integration.
Ironic that the following PHP error occurs in this page:
Parse error: parse error in /usr/home/day/www/htdocs/my-hacks.php on line 20
Seriously, PHP can be used to make good web applications in the same way any other technology can be used. In the end it’s the developer not the language which will result in crappy code.
RE PHP errors: I was adding a feature to my site as you visited, Anthony. It was probably inevitable given all of the great discussion above that someone would visit, and comment, during the five minute period that I was making an update. 🙂
I was truly amazed that someone actually wrote in a forum, what I have been thinking for years. “Use the proper tool for the proper job”. Java isn’t always the best tool to use for a web application. This is all dependent on complexity, however. I’m still in awe how so many developers live and die by the Java sword for web…the original concept was “Write once run anywhere”, Which is what I still believe. Java is a wonderful desktop applications language. It bridges the gap between Unices and Windows in ways no one could dream, however, as a Web language (I know I’ll be lynched for this one) it’s a bloated monster. But as I mentioned earlier, this is all dependent on the complexity of the application. For about 75% of all web applications, PHP would make a much better choice. Design and development time is cut in half as opposed to Java Web Appliactions, not to mention maintainability (Which many OO activists would disagre with me) is increased increased at least 3-fold over Java web applications. I’ve been writing Java code for over 6 years on and off, since 1997. And I’ve been writing PHP code for 4 years (since 2000). And Java definitely has its place, but in the web development arena, PHP will win out 75% of the time.
Re: For about 75% of all web applications, PHP would make a much better choice. Design and development time is cut in half as opposed to Java Web Appliactions, not to mention maintainability (Which many OO activists would disagre with me) is increased increased at least 3-fold over Java web applications.
I have also been looking for evidence that OOP makes web software more maintainable. I would like to see some practical examples, not yet more animal and geometry examples. I have not been able to find anything that non-OOP code could do just as well if coded smartly, or nearly as well such that the difference is negligable.
Hmm…When did say that PHP could not be using an OO approach?
In fact PHP supports the creation and employment of classes, the ability to extend them, the ability to override and overload existing methods, plus the abuility to inherit methods and variables from its parent classes… (basically what defines a OO language…Extensibility, Polymorphism, and Inheritance).
My point was that Java has become sooo bloated trying to follow the MVC standards that it’s become much more difficult to design and code.
Case in point…
Try developing a CMS/Portal Application using Java versus PHP…
Both using proper MVC standards, note the difference in ease and timing.
Like I said…proper tool for the proper job. Java is not the best fit for everything.