merits of learning perl for a php developer

why shoud i learn perl?

[phparion]

Hi

I am very sound php developer and can work in PHP-AJAX, PHP-XML, PHP-cURL, PHP-Excel ..

But I know that PERL is also very popular (may be not as much as php now-a-days) ..

I was thinking to learn PERL but am still not sure if it will benifit me really? so I was looking to hear from experienced PERL developers that should I seriously learn PERL and how could it benifit me to learn perl though I use PHP as a serverside development tool and am good at php..

thanks

[Birdman]

PHP is easier to learn and more focused towards web development. Perl is more powerful, with steeper learnig curve.

I use PHP for work(web-apps), but I love 'experimenting' with Perl.

If you've got the time, go for it. You won't really need it if you do web dev though.

[edited by: Birdman at 7:37 pm (utc) on Oct. 24, 2006]

[adwatson]

I don't know much PHP, but have been doing perl for while now. Perl has one advantage - you can write "utility" scripts for things like database fixes, maintenance, backups, etc. I've written scripts to reformat static sites, fix broken image links, etc. Perl is very good at this, which I think makes it a useful tool for any web developer.

[SeanW]

I'm with adwatson. PHP is great for web pages and displaying dynamic databases. Perl is an excellent tool for getting the data in to the database, writing reports, mass edits, or other batch-type processes.

There's nothing saying that php couldn't be used for the batch processes (it can, and is), nor that perl can't be used for display (it can, and is). I'm quite fluent in both languages and the scenario above is how I often do things because it makes the best use of each languages' strengths.

Sean

[phparion]

SeanW, can you please give me any URL to any best tutorial of PERL from scratch to master level? i have best concepts of programming with advanced OOP understanding so I'd not take much time to get over the perl nor i need spoon feeding kinda tutorials but still as it is my first time with PERL so some tutorials that can give me strong concepts of syntax and its usage etc ..

thanks

[SeanW]

No good urls to hand out, sorry. Best thing to do is flip through perldocs (man perl which will give you references to things like perlsyn for a quick guide to syntax, other things for data structures, etc). Then learn to use cpan to search for modules.

After that, pick a project or two and just work through them using perl, looking up what you need. One of the strengths of perl is that you can get started with a little bit of knowledge -- as you figure out more you get more efficient.

Sean

[schentor]

I started out with Perl. I have since switched to PHP for web development, but Perl is still very useful for writing command-line utility scripts. I learned Perl from a book, "Perl from the Ground Up." [perl.org...] has some Perl tutorials.

[phparion]

thanks for sharing your learning resources. I had bought a 800 pages PERL book and had started studying it by now I have very good hold on things in PERL as it is not that different from PHP / C ... but still I am in doubt that when should I select PHP and when PERL to develop projects?