Toro

I am design whether to go either with CGI with Perl or Server-Side with JSP. I am asking this in this forum because I want to know what your opinion is. Please share them.

DaWei

CGI is server side. CGI is an interface specification (a standard, actually) that some server-side languages use to deal with the HTTP protocol. I have no idea if JSP works directly with the HTTP or if it uses another interface. Perl typically uses the CGI. Python can, if one wants to. There are other frameworks. JSP, ASP, et.al., are active server pages. This means one can build response content actively, mix it with static content, whatever, then when the whole response is built, spit it out.

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Toro

Would you go with something like Perl, Python, etc. or PHP, JSP, ASP?

DaWei

I would go with Python, at this point, because I'm enamored with it. I'm doing my first web app, which is for me. If it were a client, I would go with PHP. That's strictly because I have enough PHP/mySql under my belt to feel comfortable that I'm not charging my client for my educational experience. I used Perl about six years ago. It's fine, but my personal opinion (and that's all it is) is that it has been somewhat left in the dust. I've never used JSP, but I'm not a Java fan (the last time I used it was at the same time I used the Perl). I'm most definitely not an MS/ASP fan, although I decry the tendency for people to bash them (because I think most bashing is copycat, and not from real experience used to form valid opinions).

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Booooze

I don't really know squat about Python, but for web development overall, I would generally go with PHP. Tried Perl/CGI, and didn't like it. ASP and ASP.NET were not much of an option for me because I didn't want to use IIS ( I learned the hard way trying to run a windows server). JSP I haven't tried. I would say go with PHP. It's the easiest and probably the most powerful. And as the for the support, it can't get too much better

Arevos

JSP will be faster, but considerably more complex.

Perl CGI will be slower, but easier for simpler things.

A staight choice between Perl and JSP seems a little odd, as they pretty much require different servers.

You may wish to consider other options, such as PHP if you're doing something simple; or frameworks such as Ruby on Rails, Django or Turbogears, if you're doing something complex.

Toro

What would be considered small when using PHP?

Arevos

Anything less than a complete web application, I suspect. If you just want special functionality on a particular page, or set of pages, PHP would probably do pretty well. If you wanted to design a web-based application of some kind, and the functionality needed wasn't readily available from an open source project somewhere, then I'd advise using a Ruby on Rails-like platform.

I hear CakePHP is pretty good too; essentially PHP on Rails. It suffers from the limitations of PHP; Python and Ruby far outstrip PHP in terms of functionality and elegance. But CakePHP seems like a nice "middle way" between straight PHP and Rails.

Toro

I would want something complex as a shopping cart and with an update web application where I would just update products just using that application.

free-zombie

like OsCommerce ?]
Use what you're comfortable with. If you know Java, you might want to go with JSP or Trails (Java on Rails). Of you don't know anything, go for php, it's nice. OsCommerce is written in PHP - poking around in it should be educational.... (I've worked with it..,. abstraction layers everywhere which I, under time pressure, cunningly avoided )