Languages suited for development in slow-moving institutions [closed]

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I have a project which is in the R&D phase at a university institution. If this was a start-up I would use some开发者_如何学Python language which is fast to work with like PHP or Ruby. Considering that speed is less of an issue in my current project and stability, support, quality, and sanity are more important, is PHP suitable here? Or is Java still the language for such projects?

Thanks, Alex

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I don't know about Ruby, but I have a background in PHP and some in Java, and recently discovered Python. Imho Python and Django framework definitely deserve consideration. Here is why:

• the code is clear, very DRY, and can be quite self-explanatory
• Djagno has a not-too-steep learning curve
• documantation is good, community is alive
• there are solutions for many situations already availible (my latest prob: trees in sql - django-mptt) and one can allways improve on them or make something completely new

If Java and PHP are your only choices, well... How big is the project going to get?

Recently I had a look into Magento, and I must say PHP is not the tool for such a big project.
Java compiles, PHP doesn't. Don't get too enterprisy with PHP, or secure a good hosting.

However, one can get resonabley "enterprisy" with PHP, since PHP has well-developed OOP infrastructure, and there are some good frameworks that are built upon that. And PHP is more "at home" on the web, but I never did any Java for web, so I may be wrong.

Let me repeat once again - Django :)

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If you wan't to move slowly and still use PHP, you can use Zend Framework or Symfony for example. It will help if you have never used them before.

For stability, support, quality, etc. you should have things like Unit-testing, Continuous Integration and a good framework (with a big community and support).

In the face of PHP, you have all of that (PHPUnit, phpUnderControl, Zend/Symfony as a great frameworks) so PHP is a very good choice, in fact a better choice than Java. (Java web servers are harder to maintain).

As a PHP developer, that's my opinion.

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Please check this Comparison of Programming Languages, in order to develop your own conclusions according to the needs of your project.