Which is better Perl or PHP?

Answer 1

Every programming language has its uses; "what is better" depends on what you want to use it for.

While Perl was the "original" web programming language for creating dynamic web pages, PHP has mostly superseded it in that arena. That is, PHP is generally a much better fit for creating the content display logic (i.e. "presentation layer") for a web site that has dynamically-created HTML. This is the primary design criteria for PHP, and it is no surprise that PHP outshines Perl for anything but the simplest designs.

On the other hand, Perl retains its crown over practically anything else as the "Duct Tape of systems administration". Particularly on UNIX and Linux systems, where the "everything is a file" and "config files belong in ASCII text format" are the primary design philosophies, Perl's string manipulation powers are unmatched by anything else; in addition, the massive data bank of useful libraries that are hosted in the CPAN (Comprehensive Perl Archive Network) give Perl an enormous variety of pre-written (and, well-documented, too) code that allows the programmer to glue together a Perl program in a much shorter time than any other scripting language.

So, the short answer is this: it depends on what job you're looking to do. For creating anything more than very basic dynamic web sites, PHP should be your choice. For any system Plumbing, text file manipulation, or network plumbing scripting, Perl is the right choice.

One word of caution: Perl well deserves its nom-de-plume of the "Swiss Army Chainsaw" of languages. It is far too easy to create "write-only code" that is obtuse, obscure, and unmaintainable for anyone (including the original creator), so extra diligence is required in Perl to adhere to Good Programming Standards. Perl is fabulous, but make sure that someone can distinguish your program text from line noise.