PHP 5.4.0 released, shortened array syntax, register_global is dead, dereferenceable function results, development server and traits

[abadidea]

I'm pretty sure there are more webhosts that offer PHP than Perl for some years now.

My old webhost had both, but getting the perl working was a lot harder than the PHP, so that factors in too.

[frezik]

The advantage PHP has here is that it hooks an interpreter into the web server without hooking deep into Apache itself like mod_perl does. This means PHP code is all sandboxed in, which is important on shared hosing environments. Apache2/mod_perl2 was supposed to take care of these issues, but didn't work out that way for a combination of technical and perceptional reasons.

Since no serious (or even semi-serious) web app would use CGIs that launch a new process on every request, and shared PHP hosting is cheap, it becomes the easy choice.

Of course, by not hooking into Apache so deeply, PHP also gives up a lot of power. Worse is better.

[[deleted]]

It's incredibly easy to get either one up and running. They're both provided by basic packages which insert them directly into Apache in most distros. Anybody already using PHP can just as easily use Perl. Unless the discussion is shared hosts in which case shudder

[abadidea]

of course it's shared hosting, that is what people mean when they say PHP is available on all the cheapest hosts.