Which is better, PHP or Python? Why?

manpreet Best Answer 2 years ago

Python has very good opportunities now-a-days. It has good scope compared to the other.

manpreet 2 years ago

That's a very subjective question. No language is inherently better than another - certainly not languages so basically similar. I've been working in PHP for a while now, and I can honestly say that saying Python is faster or that PHP doesn't scale is a crock of crap. I've built an enterprise system in it, a huge web application for online publishing which transitioned from a single server to a load balanced cluster easily, and it works like a charm. Sure, PHP has its downsides, but you can accomplish anything you set your mind to with it, within the limits of a normal web application. Where Python really shines, though, is the fact that it's general-purpose and can serve you in more ways than PHP. I've just started getting into Pyhton, and I like them both, but if I was making a web app, I would always choose PHP. It's all in the habits and best practices. Sure, most PHP code out there is horrid - but that's because the people writing it are untrained hobbyists. Defining clear boundaries, best practices and clean structure is something that can keep PHP far more structured, readable and clear than Pythons indent-based coding. This discussion smells like "Why is Java a better multiplatform choice than AIR/Actionscript?". The answer may be apparent - duh, it's Java - but it's not so. Java is a good language, but performs horribly. The JVM is a slow death to any machine, a memory hog beyond recognition even with the most optimized apps (NetBeans which is an IDE for developing Java apps in itself will use your entire CPU and over 2GB of RAM after a couple hours usage - and that's just while using it for PHP). AIR can outperform it any time of the day, and it has all the same functionality. Learning AS was incredibly useful for me - even if I did make only a couple of real applications with it - and learning PHP was purely a career boost. I'll also learn Python, and then on to Scala, just because I can, and just because I want to inherently know which language to apply to which problem without trying to reinvent hot water in another language. So, don't focus on "Why is X better than Y". Instead, go for "Should I learn X first, or Y?"