Re: Language choice for high-volume Oracle CGI interface?

Randal L. Schwartz wrote:
> >>>>> "Lee" == Lee Fesperman <firstsql_at_ix.netcom.com> writes:
> Lee> ..... Perl was not designed and
> Lee> is not used "specifically for CGI programming with database."
>
> And the advantage to using a language that is a subset of another
> langauge is...?

Actually, there are a lot of disadvantages to using a 'subset' of a language for specific purpose (like using a subset of Perl for CGI). Assuming you're advocating using a subset of Perl (so you don't have to learn the full blown language), the disadvantages of that approach include:

+ You must clearly document this subset, carefully leaving out complexities of the language that are not needed. What to include can be a very hard choice to make.

+ To a user of the subset, many of the elements will be counter-intuitive since they were actually designed for a larger purpose.

+ Certain aspects of the processing will always be a 'misfit' (impediance mismatch) with the language. For instance, access to CGI variables in Perl always requires an explicit lookup. These aspects will never make 'sense' to the subset user.

If you are recommending that Perl CGI is a good choice for an experienced developer in Perl, I wholeheartedly agree with you.

Jive (http://www.firstsql.com/jive/), OTOH, was designed from the ground up as a 'web servlet' language that is especially efficient in (but not limited to) CGI. It is not a subset of any other language, though it borrows some syntax from SQL. This is appropriate because SQL is integrated into the language.

--
Lee Fesperman, FFE Software, Inc. (http://www.firstsql.com) Received on Mon Jun 21 1999 - 22:11:19 CDT