Could someone tell me why Java is faster than PHP

[BerislavLopac]

PHP is not a "web development framework", its a language that was built with the web in mind.

Veeeeery wrong.

For example, Struts is a Web development framework, implemented in Java and using Java for its internal development. Ruby on Rails is a Web development framework, implemented in Ruby and using Ruby for its internal development. Whitebeam is a Web development framework, implemented in C (or C++, I'm not sure) and using Javascript for its internal development.

And PHP is a Web development framework, implemented in C and using a custom syntax for its internal development. PHP was not originally intended as a language -- just a syntax for scripts within the framework. After Zend took it over it gets turning more and more into a language, but it's still far from being one. It's similar to Microsoft's VBA, even though Joel thought a bit more about its design than Rasmus, Andi and Zeev did about PHP's -- nobody will ever go to compare VBA scripts with anything else, we'd just compare the speed and effect of, say, Excel Macros to a similar environment.

[stereofrog]

oh well I think calling php not a language is kind of uncool lol

ot: this year's most stupid topic so far imho
see also http://www.deftcode.com/archives/eve..._war_ever.html

[Snaily]

And PHP is a Web development framework

This would explain...why Zend is now...developing a framework. You either are saying something stupid or using the phrase "web development framework" very loosely.

while ((line = reader.readLine()) != null) {
      contents += line;
    }

This is inefficent....do this:

StringBuilder builder = new StringBuilder();
String line;
    while ((line = reader.readLine()) != null) {
         builder.append(line);
    }

Note: If you are using java < 1.5 you have to use "StringBuffer". Also you could do it faster in Java by not using the BufferedReader and just dealing with the InputStream directly, but that would involve writing a few helper methods.

[BerislavLopac]

This would explain...why Zend is now...developing a framework.

I'll give you a few reasons why they're doing it:

1. They don't really understand what PHP is. They've inherited it as a framework and worked to make it a language, which they mostly succeeded but it's still a framework in the foundation.
2. They want to have an OOP framework, so they're building it on top of another one.
3. They think they need a "one framework to bring them all" because it's such a hype right now.

[Snaily]

Re: The perl vs java code.
Once I got on a linux box to actually run the code I realized....a few things about this. First this is a poor example to test the languages in string processing. But anyways, I was able to get the java read code to run faster, but the best I could do without using non-standard techiques is 2-3x slower. The may reason for this is that whenever you need to construct a string in java from say a byte array, you must make a copy of the byte array. Given the size of the array this sucks up a much of clock cycles. So this ends up being a particular weakness for java, but this weakness doesn't extend to all string processing in java (for example the substring() method doesn't copy the char array). Anyhow countless benchmarks show Perl/Java with very close performance with regard to string processing.

Also the code I posted offers no advantage because the file that is writen has no new line characters, if it did using a string builder etc would be faster.

[Snaily]

1. They don't really understand what PHP is.

Yes the people that created PHP don't really understand what PHP is.....!??!

They've inherited it as a framework and worked to make it a language, which they mostly succeeded but it's still a framework in the foundation.

PHP started out as a collection of perl scripts to do common web tasks...this is hardly a "web development framework". All the major scripting languages were created with some strength in mind...but have evolved much beyond their initial reason d'etre. PHP has been a general purpose scripting language for sometime now.

[Trent Reimer]

Anyhow countless benchmarks show Perl/Java with very close performance with regard to string processing.

I imagine that's especially true for anything one would do in a real-world web application where you generally don't want to set off a bunch of resource intensive procedures

[Trent Reimer]

When PHP started people still thought of sites as a collection of pages. Remember when we thought a state of the art site was a collection of pages with common includes for the header and footer? Oh man. PHP was such a big step up from server side includes.

As was stated, all these languages/platforms evolve. I'll add my vote that it's time for PHP to have a standard framework.

[Dr Livingston]

> PHP has been a general purpose scripting language for sometime now.

PHP is not a general purpose scripting language, in the sense that Python et al are general purpose scripting langauges; PHP is a scripting language for the web, that and nothing more.

That isn't a weakness, but that's PHPs one real strength to humanity. That is what it does, it does nothing more, nothing less and I wouldn't have it any other way.

> And PHP is a Web development framework, implemented in C and using a custom syntax for its
> internal development.

That is a poor excuse of a reason to suggest that PHP as a technology, is nothing but a framework; Your scrapping the bottom of the barrel here...

[Snaily]

PHP is not a general purpose scripting language, in the sense that Python et al are general purpose scripting langauges

Oh interesting...what does PHP lack that excludes it from the set of "general purpose scripting languages"?

PHP is a scripting language for the web, that and nothing more.

Is this a joke? Or maybe Its just my imagination that CLI has been enabled in PHP by default since 4.3.0? Oh those pitiful souls who mistakely use PHP on the command line...god have mercy on them!

[33degrees]

PHP is not a general purpose scripting language, in the sense that Python et al are general purpose scripting langauges; PHP is a scripting language for the web, that and nothing more.

Well, PHP may have been intended as a web oriented scripting language, but that doesn't mean it can't be used a general scripting language either. I'd be curious to know what features or lack thereof make PHP a poor choice for general scripting tasks?

[BerislavLopac]

PHP has been a general purpose scripting language for sometime now.

This is true. PHP is a scripting language. But PHP is Web development framework. No, not that PHP, the other PHP...

Aw crap. We have two different things going by the same name...

[jayboots]

ot: this year's most stupid topic so far imho

full ack. There is a nearly 0% content in this thread. Hopefully no one impressionable is following it. Oh, and that was a great link -- I hadn't seen that one before but it is dead on. (I can't believe I actually posted into this thread, lol)

[Etnu]

> PHP has been a general purpose scripting language for sometime now.

PHP is not a general purpose scripting language, in the sense that Python et al are general purpose scripting langauges; PHP is a scripting language for the web, that and nothing more.

Why not? What scripting task that you'd use python or perl for can PHP not perform? No, it doesn't do very well when it comes to long-lived processes (daemons), but I'm hard-pressed to find any logical reason why you wouldn't use PHP as a general purpose scripting language if you're familiar with it.

[dagfinn]

full ack. There is a nearly 0% content in this thread. Hopefully no one impressionable is following it. Oh, and that was a great link -- I hadn't seen that one before but it is dead on. (I can't believe I actually posted into this thread, lol)

The thread would better if the words "stupid", "silly" and "nonsense" weren't used so much. And the ones who use those words would gain credibility if they abstained from them.

Anyone who wants to tell me how stupid it is of me to say that, go ahead.

EDIT: I might be inclined to agree that this thread is stupid, though.