Re: What's the latest thinking of thebest twoorthreewebdevelopment languages/environ...

On Tue, Aug 12, 2008 at 3:00 PM, Nathan Andelin <nandelin@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:

From: Jim Dillard
Comparison of Net.Data vs. PHP on IBM's web site (2/2007)
http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/systems/library/es-phppart2/

One thing that struck me was the performance comparison between Net.Data and PHP in outputting an SQL result set to
an HTML table, where PHP was allowed to use a prepared SQL statement, but Net.Data wasn't afforded that opportunity.
Was that a bias in favor of PHP? Or, didn't they know how to do that in Net.Data?

As far as I know, there is no way to use prepared statements /
parameter markers in Net.Data itself (you can put them in SQL stored
procedures or in RPG programs using SQL). That's another knock
against Net.Data -- you need to do your own work to guard against SQL
injection.

My point is that you can use prepared SQL statements in the native language environment, and evoke them from Net.Data to improve performance.

In fact, that's the type of thing I've been advocating throughout this thread. If you're serious
about Net.Data, consider using the native language environment for business logic and
DB I/O. Use Net.Data for generating the output stream.

Minor quibble here... The choice of language environment may depend
upon the nature of your application and where you're running it. If
your app is on the public internet, you really should have your
database in the protected area of your network and a web serving
system in the DMZ. If you're doing that, I'm not sure you can use the
native language environment (at least we could never get that to
work). We use the SQL environment and wrap all our RPG/CL programs
with SQL stored procedures. If it's an intranet app, then it's no big
deal to run everything on one box.

But as far as your main point of keeping business logic in native
languages, you're absolutely right.

If that's you're architecture, it doesn't really matter that PHP has tons of literature
and sample code. For you're purposes you're only using the scripting environment
for browser I/O, and perhaps a bit of application control.

There's enough other stuff in PHP for use on the UI side that I think
it's still an advantage over Net.Data. There are also hundreds of
prewritten applications in PHP. As far as I know, no one's written a
wiki in Net.Data yet. Or a graphing package. Or a blogging system.
Or a CRM package.

Mix in the availability of PHP developers over Net.Data developers,
and it's tough to pick Net.Data. We have a heck of a time getting our
Java developers to maintain our old Net.Data apps. We often have to
remind them that they enjoy having a job :)

Mike E.