[Tutor] Python vs. PHP

Sun, 27 Jan 2002 19:45:42 -0000

> flexible, as you can write your entire page in HTML and add the PHP 
> where it's needed, or you can write your entire page in PHP 
> and include HTML where needed (or print it where needed).  

Python (or indeed Perl) can do this too usong CGI techniques:

print '''<HTML><HEAD><TITLE>The title here</TITLE></HEAD>
<BODY>
<!-- Whatever you want here -->

</BODY></HTML>'''

So apart from adding a print statement and triple quotes 
it works pretty well. To add code just break the quoted 
sequence in two like so:

print '''<HTML><HEAD><TITLE>The title here</TITLE></HEAD>
<BODY>
<!-- Whatever you want here -->
'''   # break the html text here

def foo(): 
   print str(5*5) # prints 5 into the HTML

print '''    # continues the HTML text
<!-- ret of html here -->
</BODY></HTML>'''

So you can insert code into the HTML almost like you 
do in PHP or ASP.

If course you can use PSP too which works exactly 
like ASP/PHP but using:

[%   
     # Python code here
     print "foobar"
%]

And On IIS you can even use ASP:

<% SCRIPT LANGUAGE='Python'>

<%  print 'foobar' %>

Or whatever - I'm in an airport lounge without 
access to my ASP books!

The point is that despite the hysteria generated, there 
is very little to choose between ASP or CGI style web 
scripting.

Alan G