Practical Web: How Hard Are Web Languages, Anyway?

[efnkay]

** This thread discusses the article: Practical Web: How Hard Are Web Languages, Anyway? **
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I heard about PHP but have not seen it in use yet. After the mention of "dynamic" variable typing in PHP, I said, "Whoa...NO!". It's hard enough to follow some programmers code, the usual no documentation situation...But having to figure out a variable type by what's being put in it is well kinda weak. If you give a programmer a whole to step in...they will. It adds a layer to whole idea of what you have to be looking for while debuging, so I think. Anyway I appreciate the "ease" of development thought...but in reality, what we're always dealing with is "How easy is it to modify?" Thanks for a good read.

[J.Pluta]

** This thread discusses the article: Practical Web: How Hard Are Web Languages, Anyway? **
Thanks, I appreciate the comment. You can probably tell that I'm not a big fan of dynamically typed languages. I program a lot of JavaScript, so it's not that I'm a stranger to the concept; it's just that dynamic typing moves errors from compile time to run time, and we all agree that it's more expensive to fix errors at runtime. There's a thread on midrange.com right now about how awful the LDA is, because it's a band-aid solution that may introduce errors down the line, and one of the primary arguments is that it's soft coded - another word for dynamically typed. And yet, PHP is better than Java because you can bang out code a little quicker? It sounds like the LDA writ large: a BIG band-aid that save you time now but will cost you a lot more in the long run.