The main issue I have with PHP is really it's a scripting language.
Not that scripting languages are bad, but I just like my end
programs compiled. (Quick >Google search does show you can compile
PHP, I was unaware of that).
A nice feature of running PHP as an interpreted language is the flexibility in variable typing. Variable type in PHP depends on context. You don't get that when you compile a program. Compiled programs require that you define variable types in advance and they can't change.
I would _love_ to see a PHP-to-ILE compiler on the IBM i. That way, we could use PHP as a scripting language for web apps and as a compiled language for batch apps. We could also mix PHP with RPG, COBOL, C, and CL as ILE modules. We could do something like Facebook is doing with PHP and C++ (except we'd be doing it with PHP and ILE).
Kelly Cookson
Senior Programmer/Analyst
Dot Foods, Inc.
217-773-4486 x12676
www.dotfoods.com
-----Original Message-----
From: web400-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:web400-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of James Perkins
Sent: Tuesday, April 20, 2010 3:06 PM
To: Web Enabling the AS400 / iSeries
Subject: Re: [WEB400] Why use PHP? What are the disadvantages?
Very well written Scott. I'll choose to ignore the jab at Java being
slow and cumbersome ;-), but that's just me and everyone is entitled
to their opinion.
I've never really thought of RPG being a function style language, but
I could see that being pretty useful. Adding typeless or strongly
typed parameters could make it quasi I do agree it should NEVER be an
OO language. Like you said there are plenty of them and RPG has no
need to be one.
Personally I would like overloaded procedures, but honestly sometimes
they bring more headaches than anything. Not to offend anyone, but I
could see a lot of RPG programmers overload everything with WAY too
many parameters.
The only thing I really miss in RPG that OO has is inheritance. It
would be nice to be able to extend a service program without having to
re-compile everything to use it.
I also agree that Open Access is going to give us very little. I think
it will help a bit, if I understand it correctly, with stuff like XML
parsers or something like that. I don't think it will be good for UI
at all. OO really is the best option for UI development, RPG is not,
IMHO.
Now to get a little on topic and express my personal opinion about PHP
(note I've never written any PHP).
The main issue I have with PHP is really it's a scripting language.
Not that scripting languages are bad, but I just like my end programs
compiled. (Quick Google search does show you can compile PHP, I was
unaware of that). So, this complaint is probably not valid and I
should read a little more before I complain :-).
The issue I have with PHP has nothing to do with the language, but who
writes it. I've seen and heard of huge PHP scripts that are thousands
of lines long. I've also seen RPG programs that are thousands of lines
long. My fear is that RPG programmers will write PHP code like they
write RPG code. I know a lot developers on this list write well formed
RPG, but the code I usually have to deal with is not well formed at
all. It's usually fixed format, full of sub-routines and has
duplicated business logic from other programs.
--
James R. Perkins
midrange.com
