Comparison of PHP and Python - Essay Example

for admin: The does not require references; therefore, I have not included them. Dear Please delete this before submitting Introduction It is pertinent to state some facts and figures of both the languages including Python and PHP before stating my opinion and experience with these languages. Originally, PHP stands for Personal Home Page, however, now it is known as Hypertext Preprocessing. The PHP is a server side scripting language (the script language support run time environment and their scripts interprets rather than compiles), usually utilized for the development of web applications; however, it is also used for developing general purpose applications. Initially, the PHP was developed by Rasmus Lerdorf around nineteen (19) years ago; however, later on the PHP was produced by The PHP Group. The code written in the PHP language is interpreted by the PHP processor module using a web browser which displays a web page based on the HTML (Hypertext Markup Language) and embedded PHP code. It is pertinent to mention here that the PHP code can be embedded into the HTML (Screenshot 1 shows the HTML embedded PHP code file) file as well as it can be an external / separate file (Screenshot 2 shows the PHP separate file code) having an extension of ‘. PHP’. Screenshot 1 HTML Embedded PHP Code The PHP is an open source language, meaning that the PHP is free software under the PHP license whose source code can be amended as per the requirements. The PHP can be deployed on almost every operating system which can be a standalone computer system or a web server. Screenshot 2 PHP Code Separate File Python is one of the high level languages (the high level languages are those programming languages which are more understandable to the human beings and does sends commands directly to the hardware). The Python language was initially created by Guido van Rossum in 1980, however, the first program was implemented in 1989. The Python is a general purpose language; however, it is over and over again used as a scripting language, however, it can also be utilized as non scripting language. As compared to the programming languages, the Python language emphasizes code reliability, as the Python programmers can express functionalities in less number of code lines comparatively. By utilizing the third party tools include: Pyinstaller and Py2exe make the Python language capable of executing standalone programs. Screenshot 3 Python Code The Python language can be deployed to the computer system as well as the application server, moreover, a number of operating systems provide support to the Python Language. The Python is an open source programming language, which can be deployed free of charge. Screenshot 4 HTML Embedded Python Code In my opinion, there are huge numbers of similarities between both the languages as compared to the differences of these languages. Some of the similarities have already discussed in the document include: the open source software, high level languages, scripting languages, but can be used as general purpose programming and supported by various operating systems. But as far as coding styles of both languages are concerned, both languages support namespaces, chaining methods, docstring (Pydoc for Python and phpDocumenter for PHP), both languages support variable function arguments and various Integrated Development Environments (IDEs) support available for both languages, several debuggers for both languages and single statement is used to declare any variables for all the data types. Moreover, both languages support GTK (GIMP Tool Kit), Command Line Interface (CLI) and portable (i-e both languages run and deployed on almost every currently exist platform and does not require recompilation). As both languages are different, therefore, there several differences, strengths and weaknesses over each other. In my opinion, one of the major differences is the development purpose of both languages i-e the PHP is specifically developed for creating web applications and producing dynamic web pages (involve databases and the web contents can be changed using Content Management System (CMS)). However, the purpose for development of the Python language is the productivity, reliability and code readability. Therefore, as far as the usability of the each language is concerned, the Python is far more readable and easy to use as compared to the PHP. One of the reasons is that the PHP focuses more on documentation and goes after the classic approach, however, the Python focuses on the code indentation (though enhances readability). As the Python is more readable language for the human beings, therefore, it is easy to learn as compared to the PHP. However, in case of popularity, I believe that the PHP is more popular language as compared to the Python. Although, various highly rated websites are developed using PHP (including Facebook, Wikipedia) and Python (Google and YouTube), even then as per my opinion, the PHP is more famous and heard language as compared to the Python. There is another reason to support the popularity of the PHP is a huge number of jobs in the market available for the PHP developer as compared to the Python Developers. As far as my opinion and experience is concerned, I think the lines of code and average run time of the languages are same, although, the PHP language is slightly better in average run time and Python is better in writing lines of code. Now let’s compare both languages as a Web Development Framework. As I mentioned before in the document that the PHP has more web development capabilities because the language needs to fulfill its purpose, however, the Python requires an add-on to provide the web development functionalities. But on the other hand, there are several third party tools are available for Python, which enhances the flexibility for developing web applications in Python language. For every advantage associates one or many disadvantages, due to the wide range of third party tool availability for Python language makes the developer confuse which to learn and use. Keeping in view this point, I believe that the PHP language is easy to start with. The PHP language provides a huge range of installed user and community support, however, the user base of the Python language is not huge but sizeable. Moreover, in the prevailing market, the number of PHP developers is much more than the number of Python developers. Keeping in view the facts, it is quite difficult to state that which language is better, however, both languages have their respective pros and cons. But it can be stated that the both languages fulfill their purposes for which they have been developed. Read More