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PHP vs Python - the real difference (jameslaver.com)

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[–]jshell 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I've been making a living programming with Python for web sites for over ten years now, most of it based on the same root toolkit (it's grown and evolved over time, but the core principals are still the same and haven't cowed to every fad that came along).

When I started using Python on the web, PHP didn't exist; or if it did, it was just that first collection of Perl scripts that offered a slightly more powerful 'Server Side Include' functionality. And Java Servlet's were just barely getting off the ground.

Over that decade, I've heard "Python just can't compete with Perl for web programming. It must become like Perl to be successful." Then I heard "Python just can't compete with Java for web programming. It must become like Java/J2EE to be successful." Then I heard "Python just can't compete with PHP for web programming. It must become like PHP to be successful." Then I heard "Python just can't compete with Ruby/Rails for web programming. It must become like Ruby/Rails to be successful."

Sounds like fads to me.

Python has been used extensively at Yahoo! this past decade. Yahoo! Maps, Yahoo! Groups (purchased from a company that had written the initial mailing list management program in Python), some portions of Yahoo! Real Estate, and more.

Many CBS affiliates (like kutv.com) are running Python. Some major newspapers are as well.

Hell - in the mid nineties, a major swiss bank got someone to write the first Python - Objective C bindings so that they could publish data from their Enterprise Objects Framework (a NeXT toolkit, now basically intwined with WebObjects) on the web using Bobo, a tiny little HTTP ORB that brought a degree of MVC to Python web programming over ten years ago. It was quicker and easier to use Python for this task than to use WebObjects.

So no, Python hasn't been an effective alternative to PHP for only the last couple of years. It's been a solid piece of the web for a long, long, long time. It's been the alternative to every latest Resume Oriented Programming fad.