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Which Server-Side Language Is Right For

You?

(http://www.sitepoint.com/author/kevin-yank/)
Kevin Yank (http://www.sitepoint.com/author/kevin-yank/)

Published October 9, 2001

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The market for server-side Web development solutions is a crowded one, these days! Perl,
ASP, PHP, JSP, Cold Fusion and many more specialized choices abound. How is a
newcomer supposed to know what to learn and what to use? Choosing a platform with
which to build your first major database-driven Web application is nothing like choosing
an HTML editor you cant just download a half dozen candidates and take them all for a
test drive one lazy afternoon. Some of these languages can take an uninitiated Web
developer months of work to truly understand and come to use comfortably. Unless
youve got time to take a year off and curl up with a pile of books, youre going to need
some guidance!
In this article, Ill touch on each of the major options on the net today. For each, Ill explain the main
selling points, the inevitable drawbacks, the relative costs and the neccessary compromises. Ill also
profile the target developer for each of these technologes; that is, Ill shortly explain who they had in
mind when the geniuses behind each of these technologies first created them. If any of these
profiles remind you of your own situation, that should be a pretty good sign that youve found the right
technology.

The choice of a server-side programming language is a constant source of heated debate on the
Internet today. Just like HTML editors, everyone has their favorite scripting language and most
people have very good reasons for their choices. However, the very nature of server-side
development that Web browser compatibility is not an issue allows for two technologies that
tackle the same problem in very different ways to both succeed in equal measure! For this reason,
this article is not about deciding which platform is the best of all, but which is best for you. And hey:
even if you still cant decide after reading this, or if it turns out youve already made the wrong
choice, at least youll have some idea of what youre up against!
CGI/Perl
Perl has been around longer than the World Wide Web itself. Version 1 was released on December
18th 1987, a full decade before the other languages covered in this article were even conceived! If
youre new to this stuff, youre probably wondering how a server-side Web development language
could have existed before the Web itself. You see, Perl was not created as a Web development
language. Perl is, in fact, a multipurpose scripting language that was designed to handle tasks that
involve a lot of text manipulation. Perl is very good at juggling pieces of text from various sources
and combining them to form complete documents, which is exactly what is involved in server-side
Web development.
In the decade and a half since its creation, Perl has been expanded by means of modules, pieces
of somtimes-complex functionality that can be plugged into the language to adapt it to various
specialized purposes. One such purpose is the creation of dynamic Web content via the Common
Gateway Interface (CGI) supported by the vast majority of Web servers. CGI is a standard means by
which the Web server software can hand a browsers request for a Web page off to any program.
Truth be told, CGI programs can be (and have been, on occasion) written in C/C++ if necessary.
With its convenient handling of text, however, Perl has always been better suited to the job, and now
that Perl comes with the CGI.pm module built in, most of the nitty gritty details of handling things
like HTML form submissions are handled for you. As a final boon, the Comprehensive Perl Archive
Network (CPAN) (http://www.cpan.org/) was founded to provide a centralized source for add-in
modules, sample scripts, and in some cases fully developed Web applications.
Today, versions of Perl are available for free on all major operating systems (from mainstream
Windows to the most obscure Unix variant), and if you want to make it do something complicated,
chances are someone has already written a module to make your job easier. The only downside to
this language is that, since it wasnt purpose-built for Web development, it hasnt been optimized
either for speed, scalability, or ease of use in a Web server setting. There are much easier
languages out there to learn that can do just as much in the Web development arena, but Perl will
also let you do a lot more than just Web development if you need to.
Advantages:

A mature language with over a decade of history, youre less likely to run into bugs in Perl than in
any other server-side language.
Its FREE, though a good book to show you the ropes may set you back a little.
Most good Web hosts support Perl, so you probably wont have to pay extra for hosting.
A vast network of dedicated Perl developers all over the world are at your disposal. Not only will
they answer your questions on countless Perl discussion groups and mailing lists, but the CPAN
archive (among others) will give you plenty of examples to work from.
Drawbacks:
Although some options exist to improve the situation, Perl doesnt scale especially well on busy
servers. If youre looking to create a Web application that can field a lot of hits in a short space of
time, you may want to look elsewhere.
Perl is notorious for having five different ways of doing even the simplest thing, which can make
learning from the work of others difficult if they didnt use the same method youre used to
seeing. Additionally, Perl developers are notorious for finding the shortest way to write any given
program, so you may be surprised to look at a sample script only to find that a complete
ecommerce shopping cart script has been written in three lines of code, most of which is
squiggles and backslashes.
Perl is optimized for the Unix platform on which it was created, so if you expect to work on a
Windows server, you likely have better choices performance-wise.
Perl is Open Source software, which means there is no formal support for it. Despite the huge
support community available to you, if something goes wrong, the only person you can really
count on is yourself.
Target Developer:
Most Web developers who still work with Perl today tend to be Unix administrators and users who
also put Perl to work in other areas of their system. For people like these, Perl is a comforting go
anywhere, do anything tool that can always be relied upon. If youre an inexperienced developer
faced with the task of maintaining a site that was originally written in Perl, then grab a couple of
good books (http://www.webmasterbase.com/article/435) and prepare to add a truly powerful tool to
your arsenal.
ASP
Before we go any further, lets get something out of the way for the purists out there. Microsoft Active
Server Pages (ASP) is not a language. Rather, ASP is a framework that lets you combine one of a
number of scripting languages (VBScript and JavaScript being the most popular choices) with an
expandable set of software components. These components are treated as objects by the

scripting language of your choice when it is used as part of the ASP framework. In essence, the
power of ASP lies in its ability to combine relatively simple scripting languages like VBScript and
JavaScript with powerful software components that are normally used by C/C++ developers.
Okay, thats the Microsoft sales pitch out of the way. Now lets face facts: for all practical purposes,
ASP might as well be a language. You simply get a choice between writing VBScript ASP or
JavaScript ASP. Since most of the sample code out there is written in VBScript, your choice is all
but made for you. Thus, ASP is generally considered to be a language for developing dynamic Web
sites using VBScript, and under that umbrella it excels. ASP is easy to learn, powerful enough for
most mainstream server-side Web development, and quite good performance-wise.
ASP is closely linked to the Windows operating system (most of the software components that ASP
relies on for its functionality are Windows-specific) and the Microsoft Internet Information Services
Web server software. For these reasons, it is neither practical nor desirable to run a Web site
based on ASP on anything but a Windows-based server. If youre setting up your own Web server,
that means you must invest in a copy of Windows 2000 Server (although much of ASP runs on
Windows 2000 Professional, IIS is not as scalable on that platform). If youre paying for Web
hosting, it means paying for a Windows-based server, which is usually more expensive. Any way you
look at it, ASP will cost you money to run. There are versions of ASP that can be run on an Apache
server running under Linux, but unless youre specific aim is to move an existing ASP Web site onto
a Linux server, there is little point.
Another concern for ASP developers is the relatively limited nature of the components that come
bundled with ASP. If all you need for your application is database connectivity, a search engine,
email handling services, basic form processing and session tracking, then ASP will suit you just fine.
Any less common functionality, however, will usually require you to install additional software
components on your server. There are many companies out there that produce components for use
with ASP that generate PDF files, interact with FTP servers, handle binary file uploads and many
other things. Unfortunately, these components, like ASP, tend to be commercial solutions that will
cost you money.
The upside of all this is that ASP is a very well supported technology, with all the backing of the
Microsoft development community behind it. MSDN (http://msdn.microsoft.com/), the Microsoft
Development Network provides a wealth of technical articles and reference material for ASP
developers, and Microsoft support personnel will gladly investigate any problems you have in your
development efforts (for a price). If at any time you absolutely need an answer to a question, you can
rest assured there will be someone there whose job it is to give you the answer.
Advantages:
Fairly easy to learn, though programming is required.
Built into Windows 2000 Server no installation headaches.

Professional support available.

Drawbacks:
Its not free (unless youre already using a Windows server)
Specialized functionality may require you to purchase commercial components, or develop them
yourself in C/C++ or Visual Basic.
If youre used to C-style syntax (shared by C/C++, Java, Perl, PHP, etc.), you may find the
idiosyncrasies of VBScript difficult to come to grips with.
Target Developer:
If youve done any development with VBScript or Visual Basic, or have developed COM objects in
Windows before, then this is definitely the Web development platform for you. Also, ASP is about as
friendly to non-programmers as a programming language can get (but if you really hate
programming, check out Cold Fusion, up next). If youre comfortable committing to Windows for your
Web server platform and can afford the costs involved, or if the company you work for simply
demands the level of support that Microsoft can provide, then ASP is a great technology to learn.
Cold Fusion
For the Web desginer who has never written a program before, the choice of server-side Web
development platform can be a dreaded one. Whichever way you go, youre faced with an big, evil
programming language to learn and your head just starts to ache Originally created by Allaire
(http://www.allaire.com/) in 1995 and recently bought out by Macromedia
(http://www.macromedia.com/), Cold Fusion was designed to be different. Instead of a scripting
language, Cold Fusion gives you a set of tags to learn. Yes, tags just like those HTML tags youve
come to know and love!
Lets take the example of publishing information stored in a database on the Web. With the vast
majority of server-side languages, you need to add code to your Web page to break out of HTML
mode, connect to the database, request the entries from the database that you want to display, and
process the results that the database sends you to display it as part of the Web page. In Cold
Fusion, this common task is done with two tags: a <CFQUERY> tag, the attributes of which give the
query a name and indicate what information to retrieve from which database. A second tag,
<CFOUTPUT> refers to the query and lets you use standard HTML to format and display the results

of the query.
To the experienced programmer, this tag-based system may sound restrictive and inflexible, but with
a built-in library of over 300 tags in the latest version, and the ability to add custom tags with more
traditional programming languages like C/C++ and Java, Cold Fusion is anything but restrictive.
Cold Fusion 5.0 includes tags that automatically generate graphs from database data, seamlessly

provide search facilities on your Website, and even generate HTML forms with full JavaScript
validation code. For the desginer who is forced to acquire server-side skills, Cold Fusion comes
with the utopian promise of only having to learn a few new tags!
Like ASP, Cold Fusion is a commercial server platform, which means it will cost you money to run it
whether you set up your own server or rent space on a Web hosting provider. Unlike ASP, however,
Cold Fusion is not tied to the Windows platform. Cold Fusion can integrate just as easily with
Apache running under Linux as it can with IIS on Windows 2000.
Advantages:
Extremely easy to learn no programming required!
Powerful and very scalable (latest version has support for both software- and hardware-based
server clustering).
Professional Support from Macromedia.
Cross platform.
Drawbacks:
Expensive to set up your own server: Cold Fusion Server Professional 5.0 costs $1,295
Programmers may not like the tag-based development methods.
Target Developer:
Web designers who are comfortable with HTML but need to add server-side skills to their repertoire
without having to learn a programming language. From the average developers point of view,
learning Cold Fusion is just like learning some new tags. Non-designers are also likely to warm up
to the neatness of server-side programming with tags, so if youre tired of debugging your serverside scripts, Cold Fusion might be worth a look!
PHP
A relative newcomer in the server-side development arena, PHP has gained a large following
among programmers with its familiar syntax and comprehensive function library. Also, its relatively
simple syntax and low, low price (its free!) has made it an attractive alternative to Microsofts ASP
for new developers.
PHP has been dubbed by some to be Perl killer of the server-side scripting world. For purposes of
Web development, PHP can do almost everything that Perl can, and usually does it quicker and
easier. Unlike Perl, which usually runs as a CGI program invoked by the Web server to handle each
page request, PHP can integrate with your Web server so that it operates much more efficiently.

PHP is an extremely capable language, with a vast array of built-in functions to do everything from
tracking user sessions to generating dynamic graphics and even PDF files on the fly! No modules to
install, no commercial add-ins to buy PHP handles everything itself! In fact, just about the only
weakness of PHP is that its relatively difficult to expand the language to add non-standard
functionality that is not handled by its built-in functions. Doing this requires a knowledge of C/C++
programming and is not for the faint of heart! Fortunately, youd have to come up with a very esoteric
Web application to require functionality that isnt already built into PHP.
PHP is free, cross-platform, Open Source software. It integrates with all major Web servers on all
major operating systems. This is a great boon for developers on a budget, because they can set up
a complete Linux-based Web server with PHP support and not pay a dime for software! The
downside of this, of course, is that there is no formal support for any problems you may encounter
with PHP. Also since PHP is such a new and actively developed technology, there are still
occasional bugs found in the latest versions. Dont let these niggles put you off, though PHP has
an extremely active user community (a large segment of which can be found in our very own
SitePoint Forums (http://www.sitepointforums.com/)!) that is always eager to help you with any
stumbling blocks, and the current versions of PHP are quite stable and reliable.
Advantages:
Fairly easy to learn, especially for developers with C/C++, Java, or Perl experience.
Active user community willing to lend you a hand getting started.
Everythings built right into the language.
Its free!
Cross-platform.
Drawbacks:
This language was designed to be programmer-friendly, which unfortunately makes it a little less
friendly to non-programmers.
Target Developer:
Web developers on a budget who enjoy simple programming (e.g. JavaScript), or dont mind
learning how. PHP gives you a great deal of power with relatively simple code structure, but may not
be suited to very high end applications that arent supported by PHPs built-in features.
Java
Java is arguably the most powerful platform for server-side Web development today. From small
Java programs (Servlets) that handle Web page requests to JavaServer Pages (JSPs) that
combine HTML with custom tags and Java code, and even up to Enterprise JavaBeans (EJBs),

software components with sophisticated abilities to carry information seamlessly across servers
and networks to accomodate distributed applications, Java is truly a hot technology.
An experienced Java Web developer can easily pull in salaries in excess of US$100,000/yr. As you
might expect, theres a reason for that: Java is not easy to learn! Unlike scripting languages like
Perl, ASP and PHP, Java is a full-fledged programming language fully capable of writing big
programs! Someone with a little programming experience could expect to pick up a working
knowledge of the Java language in a month or two with the help of a good book, and in another
month would likely be able to pick up the basics of simple server-side programming with Java. Now,
if youre interested in making a career in server-side programming then that may not seem like
much, but if you just want to get something working quickly, a simpler language like PHP can have
you up and running in a week or less!
Java is renouned for its Write One, Run Anywhere (WORA) philosophy, and indeed Java can be run
on all major Web servers and all major operating systems. Java Web applications can also be
bundled up into a standard Web Application Archive (.WAR) files that can then be installed on any
Java-enabled Web server, no matter the platform. The makers of Java planned for this mechanism
to be used to distribute commercial Web applications for use on Java Web servers; however, in my
experience, Java Web applications tend to be customized solutions to complex problems, rather
than sellable solutions that you can buy online.
Many different vendors produce the plug-ins that enable Web servers like Apache and IIS to run
Java Web applications, and while most of them are free for personal use and development, the
majority must be paid for before you can use them to serve a commercial Website.
Advantages:
Extremely powerful and scalable.
Cross-platform.
Most Java server plugins are free for personal and development purposes.
Drawbacks:
Java takes a lot of work to learn. Dont even start if youre not serious about learning object
oriented programming.
Most Java server plugins must be paid for if they are to be used to host a commercial Web site.
Target Developer:
Serious developers who want the ultimate in power, flexibility and scalability for their Web
applications, and dont mind paying for it in sweat, tears and development time.

Summary
In this article, we looked at the relative features, benefits and downfalls of all the major server-side
development options available today:
Perl: a mature, cross-platform language that can be hard to understand
ASP: Microsofts powerful, Windows-based framework
Cold Fusion: a powerful, tag-based option for non-programmers
PHP: a cross-platform, open-source alternative with lots of features built in
Java: the ultimate in power and flexibility, for serious programmers
Hopefully armed with the low-down on all these options, youre feeling better-equipped to tackle the
big decision of which to learn and use for your next project. If youre still in need of some guidance,
be sure to drop by our Server-Side Internet Development forum at SitePoint Forums
(http://www.sitepointforums.com/). Well be glad to help!

(http://www.sitepoint.com/author/kevin-yank/)

Kevin Yank (http://www.sitepoint.com/author/kevin-yank/)

Kevin began developing for the Web in 1995 and is a highly respected technical author. Kev is a
world-renowned author, speaker and JavaScript expert. He has a passion for making web
technology easy to understand by anyone. Yes, even you!

(https://plus.google.com/105505321936740566301)
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