PHP/MySQL- Whaaaat ees eet mane?

[swizcore]

In case I didnt do a good job at personafy-ing my spelling, its supposed to be like "Ren and Stimpy".

Anyhow, I am just curious as to why I might want to use PHP or MySQL? What benefits do they have over the "technologies" they are replacing? What does PHP replace and what does MySQL replace(if anything or is it just a totally new deal)? Im still working solely with html and CGI. Assist me my savvy brethren adn sistren.
Thanks. And there is plenty more where this came from...

 

[nkuvu]

Dunno much about PHP -- I don't use it, but I do know it's a scripting language. I think. OK, you can ignore my PHP delusional ravings.

MySQL is a database query/construction language. If you don't have a database to run, you don't need this. I am not clear on history here either, but other options include Oracle and (shudder!) Access. I don't think that mySQL is really replacing anything -- mySQL is just not commercial. I think.

Aw, phooey. I can't think straight this evenin'. You can safely ignore this whole post. I think.



I knew it was Ren & Stimpy.

"Oh, my lovely... ice cream bar"

 

[rinse]

PHP is a server side scripting language you can use to create web applications... easier to learn than PERL, and way cheaper than ASP or coldfusion, PHP is gaining ground as a scripting language for many platforms. go to www.php.net for more info.

MySQL is an opensource database query language. It has it's limits, but does do a pretty good job, considering it is free. goto www.mysql.org for more info.

 

[nkuvu]

Wahoo! I was right on both counts!

I love it when that happens.

So is PHP something that you have to pay for? "Cheaper than ASP or ColdFusion" sounds like it. Personally, I'd stick with Perl since it's free. And I already know Perl, so that helps...

 

[putamare]

You can think of php as perl embedded in an html document so that when the server hits the php, it immediately translates the code into html, and doesn't have to send a request to an independent cgi file. ASP is kind of a kludge, using a system-scripting language to modify HTML-code as it is requested. PHP, on the other hand, is based on PERL and written especially for the web, and does web-things in a web-way. Oh yeah & it is open source (i.e. free).

One of the many great things about PHP is that you can write code like:
<table>
<?PHP for ($n;$n<10;$n++) { ?> // PHP statements begin <?PHP end with ?>
<tr><td><?=$n?></td></tr>
<?PHP } ?>
</table>

What I find puzzling is that ASP.NET has abandoned this kind of functionality altogether. You actually have to precomplile your code & can't mix and match ASP & HTML. What are they thinking?