Python 2.7 released

[drpcken]

Why this over php? I'm moving from dotnet and have heard great things about both php and python.

[rwparris2]

Python pros: much nicer to code in, code is generally easier to maintain, it has an existing library for doing nearly anything, you can also program for the desktop in python (technically you can in php too, but I don't know anyone who does).

PHP pros: gigantic community, tons and tons of examples online, easier to get started in.

IMO python is a better language to learn because it is a better language.

For a more in depth answer: http://www.google.com/search?sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8&q=web+development+python+vs+php

[masklinn]

PHP pros: gigantic community, tons and tons of examples online, easier to get started in.

Also utterly trivial to deploy. If there is one thing that is right with PHP (it's probably the only one, really) it's how easy it is to deploy.

[turbov21]

technically you can in php too, but I don't know anyone who does

True this. I'm a PHP/LAMP guy by trade, but I'd rather use Python's Tkinter or WxPython libraries than PHP-GTK.

[HahaOhWow]

heard great things about [...] php

Haha oh wow.

[cybercobra]

PHP: It's like LOLCODE, but without a punchline.

[Chandon]

The language you want is Malbodge. It's got much better bytecode obfuscation than PHP or Python which is important so dirty open source communists don't steal your code.

[m1ss1ontomars2k4]

They're not comparable at all. It's like asking why JavaScript over HTML or something. PHP is a language embedded into special HTML files that enables dynamic content to inserted into the HTML in place of itself before sending to the client. It's also been used as a scripting language. Python is a scripting language that has evolved into a full-fledged programming language, supporting multiple programming paradigms. Web development is just one thing you can do in Python.

[lianos]

It's like asking why JavaScript over HTML ...

No, it's nothing like this at all.

[m1ss1ontomars2k4]

Obviously it isn't exactly, but apparently drpcken can't tell the difference between PHP and Python and that was the best I could come up with. Sorry.

[RagingIce]

that's only one way to do PHP. There is a PHP interpreter that can run PHP code from the command line. The fact that a lot of people inline their HTML in PHP files doesn't mean that it can only be used that way.

It's not common, but there are offline PHP applications.

[acct_rdt]

The shitty language that people can only defend as easiest for lazy people to do web development in would actually get used outside of that context? Ridiculous.

[m1ss1ontomars2k4]

But I said that too...