--- Sagar C Nannapaneni <sagar@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote: > I just had an argument with my collegue (who is ASP > programmer). He said that in ASP he can use a global > variable to store the counter and then when the IIS is > shutting down he can grab that event and dump the > counter variable to a text file. I just betted him that > i can also do that with PHP. This just demonstrates that your colleague may not really know what a global variable is - what is really happening. Not understanding the underlying mechanism certainly isn't a unique characteristic of ASP developers (many PHP developers are guilty of the same), but it seems to be more prevalent among them. I credit this mostly to the unnecessary abstraction of details in the language. Of course, this comes down to a difference in perspective. ASP development places more responsibility on the language and less on the developer - much like Java. It is safer. PHP places more responsibility on the developer and less on the language - much like C. It is more flexible. As a manager, you like ASP and Java, because they limit the likelihood of your developers making a mistake. As a developer, you like PHP and C, because you want the power and flexibility, and you have confidence in yourself. This isn't true for everyone. Some managers are technically astute and choose flexibility over safety, having confidence in their ability to manage the project as well as hire skilled developers. Some developers choose safety over flexibility, because they see programming as a job, not a craft, and they're not looking to impress anyone - they just want a paycheck. Ask your colleague if there is a tradeoff concerning the convenience of a persistent process when it comes to performance and scaling issues. There are advantages and disadvantages to each, and PHP certainly doesn't win on all fronts. Chris ===== Chris Shiflett - http://shiflett.org/ PHP Security - O'Reilly HTTP Developer's Handbook - Sams Coming Soon http://httphandbook.org/ -- PHP General Mailing List (http://www.php.net/) To unsubscribe, visit: http://www.php.net/unsub.php
