PHP and MySQL

Both PHP and MySQL are open source software and belong to the much talked about LAMP (Linux, Apache, MySQL, PHP) grouping.

PHP and MySQL

Both PHP and MySQL are open source software and belong to the much talked about LAMP (Linux, Apache, MySQL, PHP) grouping. Each of these offer all the advantages of open source software, and form preferred solutions in their respective areas. A combination of these gives additional advantages because of the tight integration. MySQL is a natural backend for PHP and does not, therefore, require any additional interfaces such as ODBC drivers. This makes the connection more efficient improving performance, and also eliminating the need to install the driver for every installation of the software.

Advantages of PHP and MySQL

Surveys have shown that PHP is one of the most popular server side scripting tool in use today with over 13 million users. There are several advantages that have been the driving force behind such wide and growing popularity. Host info uses the latest PHP and Mysql combined with Fedora Core on our Compaq servers. Some of the advantages of PHP are:

1. Performance: PHP is an open source software that has been developed using compact code written in C. This ensures that the performance of PHP by itself is quite good. Since MySQL is a natural backend to PHP, the performance of the PHP-MySQL combination is also very good.
2. Stability and Support: Because PHP is open source software there are a number of developers constantly working to improve it and eliminate the bugs. This process has evolved with proprietary software as well, but the process takes more time as all the user complaints are received over a period of time, and a new version is released incorporating the improvements. In PHP and MySQL this process is a continuous one, and hence the stability of the system is better, as fatal bugs are more quickly attended to. Similarly support is better because worldwide forums are available that bring the advantage of the knowledge base of other users who have faced a similar problem to help you. Such forums are available for almost every popular software including proprietary software, but in the case of the latter, the support will necessarily be limited to work-around solutions to common problems faced till the software is modified. In the case of open source software, the chances of someone having already developed a software patch for the problem are very high.
3. Security: Security is a problem with all scripting languages as they allow access to system functions. PHP allows you to set the security at many levels so that you can select the security that you need.
4. Power: PHP has a number of readymade functions that have been developed by a host of other programmers that are available to you. This makes it easier to do your programming, and also gives you the flexibility to work the way you want. Much of this advantage comes from the fact that PHP is open source, and hence allows functions to be developed and integrated more easily into the language by almost any user.
5. Portability and cross-platform applications: PHP runs on almost all the popular operating systems, including Linux, Unix, Windows and Mac. Most other languages run in specific environments only. This means that PHP can be more easily integrated with a lot of existing software. It also allows you to choose the operating system of your choice, without restricting you to native platforms alone.
6. Cost: Both MySQL and PHP are free software. They are free in the sense that they are accessible and can be modified by anyone. They are also commercially free, and do not cost you anything. Considering the fact that both of these have a lot of other advantages and are powerful in their own right, the low or zero cost is a real advantage because you are not sacrificing anything to obtain this advantage.
7. Usage: As we saw earlier PHP (and MySQL) is widely used software. This means that availability of people for working on these platforms is not going to be a problem.

What does all this mean to you as an end user? If you are going to maintain your own site or the applications, the advantages are obvious. If you plan to get these done through someone else, it is still advantageous because you can get a good solution at a low cost without having to worry about availability of people and tools.