Programming languages as with many other things, are arbitrary.  They aren't carved into stone tablets -- they're all made up.  Some are better suited for certain problems than others.  If you don't like any out there, go invent your own.  To argue that one language is better than another is silly when at the end of the day, none of this stuff is real.

Programming languages can turn into mind prisons.  When you pick up a hammer evey problem starts looking like a nail.  Same with the MARC record format.  That has become one huge mind prison that the library community will probably never quite get itself out of.

Peter Schlumpf
www.avantilibrarysystems.com


-----Original Message-----
>From: Joe Hourcle <[log in to unmask]>
>Sent: Mar 25, 2010 11:00 AM
>To: [log in to unmask]
>Subject: [CODE4LIB] PHP bashing (was: newbie)
>
>On Thu, 25 Mar 2010, Brian Stamper wrote:
>
>> On Wed, 24 Mar 2010 17:51:38 -0400, Mark Tomko <[log in to unmask]> 
>> wrote:
>>
>>> I wouldn't recommend PHP to learn as a programming language, if your goal 
>>> is to have a general purpose programming language at your disposal.  PHP is 
>>> a fine language for building dynamic web pages, but it won't help you to 
>>> slice and dice a big text file or process a bunch of XML or do some other 
>>> "odd job" that you don't want to do by hand.
>>
>> To be precise, PHP can indeed do these kind of things, particularly in 
>> command line mode. I certainly don't recommend it, but if you're used to PHP 
>> for other reasons, and you already have it available to you, you can do 'odd 
>> jobs' with PHP. You can also use your teeth to open a tight bottle cap, the 
>> edge of a knife as a screwdriver, and duct tape to perform auto repairs.
>
>You say that as if duct tape is a bad thing for auto repairs.  Not all 
>duct tape repairs are candidates for "There, I fixed it!"[1].  It works 
>just fine for the occassional hose repair.
>
>-Joe
>
>[1] http://thereifixedit.com/