PHP vs Perl

[crokett]

Ok, new question. I played some this weekend and implemented a perl script that checks to see if a table exists on a remote database. If it does it deletes it then recreates it and fills it with a few records. I have another that generates a form and when you enter text in the text field it then pops it up on the page. the way I am doing this is the web browser loads the perl script that generates the html page and prints it into the browser window.

Eventually I will get to users sumbitting registration info, etc that gets stored on the database. So... question - is any of this easier in PHP? I have a little experience with perl, mostly for searching text files. I have no experience with PHP.

[Alex Franke]

Yes, you'll probably end up wanting to use PHP (or ASP.NET if you're already writing in VB.NET). It's a very capable language with a great user community. There's a reason a good chunk of the web software out there (like this forum for example) is written in PHP...

[linear]

PHP makes it easier to handle the part that interfaces to the user. PHP syntax is somewhat less idiosyncratic compared to perl. Perl has modules already written and tested for you that do a lot of heavy lifting.

Whatever technology you use, just please don't pass user input to the db without validation. I guess that's the web programming equivalent of paint the red line.

PHP has a couple functions made to sanitize user input, but validating input is not quite as trivial as using them.

[Alex Franke]

Whatever technology you use, just please don't pass user input to the db without validation. I guess that's the web programming equivalent of paint the red line.

I second that. This is very important -- especially if you're storing sensitive stuff in the database. Validation protects against SQL injection attacks, and it's also just good practice.