Re: Why use PHP? What are the disadvantages?

Actually, I still consider myself a novice at PHP. I haven't really tried to develop complex applications at work, since we haven't adopted it yet. I've mostly written simple things to learn some basics.

That may explain why I like loose typing so much.

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 Joe Pluta
Sent: Tuesday, April 20, 2010 4:49 PM
To: Web Enabling the AS400 / iSeries
Subject: Re: [WEB400] Why use PHP? What are the disadvantages?

Kelly Cookson wrote:

When I write a PHP function, I can make up a return variable name on the fly, and it doesn't matter if I'm returning characters, numbers, or arrays. I can also change the type of data the function returns without having to change the variable definitions everywhere the function is called. Similarly, when I call a PHP function, I can make up a variable name on the fly to receive the output, and it doesn't matter what kind of output is being passed back.

But, if you want to call it laziness, guilty as charged. ;-)

Not laziness. Bad design. That may sound harsh, but if you find
yourself regularly changing the return value of a function, then you
haven't designed the application very well. Changing what a function
returns isn't something simple - it will affect every place that
function is called. If the calling code expects the function to return
a Customer object and you've changed the function to return a date, is
it going to work?

It's the same issue I have with folks who insist they need to make
database changes often. That just tells me they haven't designed their
database very well. Better up-front analysis leads to less back-end
changes.

Joe