Friendster goes PHP – check out the comments. Didn’t realize Java v PHP flamewars were still in vogue. Architecturally, I like Java (sometimes it would be *really* nice to have a long-lived VM), but as far as ease, simplicity (definitely an order of complexity, at least), PHP remains my preferred ‘do stuff’ language.
Joyce follows up:
1) We had not one but TWO guys here who had written bestselling JSP
books. Not that this necessarily means they’re great Java devs, but I
actually think our guys were as good as any team.2) We tried rewriting the site in Java twice, using MVC and all
available best practices. It actually got slower. Anyway, what does MVC
have to do with speed or scalability? I thought it was a design
cleanliness and maintainability thing.3) We tried different app servers, different JVMs, different machines.
4) Anything that money could do, it did.
I’ll try to get permission to publish some performance stats soon.
Now, that’s something I want to read.
Related: I’ve been working my way on/off through both Advanced PHP and J2EE Best Practices. For some reason the J2EE book is just a real slog in comparison. I guess EJBs just isn’t my thing.