Iteresting read:
http://www.oracle.com/technology/pub/co ... o-php.html
I have to admit, although PHP itself was trivial to learn (being a C style language) there was a huge change in thinking and style of development when making the transition from desktop to web application.
For instance, I never considered application security a big issue as most things I wrote were little utility apps which didn't have a need for ACL's, etc...
Nor was sanitizing data a big deal...about the only thing I worried about was buffer overflows...at that was taken care of for me when I switched to MFC development from C style SDK development.
One of the biggest challenges in web development I have found was the adoption of more planning and application design, etc...
As it's easier in PHP to develope large applications than C++ it's also easier to become tangled with large code bases...
For example, consider an MFC custom control...they can be anywhere from 500 lines to 20,000 lines easy...and they often contain adhoc hacks and esoteric, undocumented techniques...making them very difficult to develop and at times more difficult to understand as an outsider...
Despite all this code & complexity for a single control, it all falls under that custom control...there is no need for MVC, etc...you just need a solid understanding of Windows internals and it's SDK...
Whereas complete applications require an entirely different skillset and thought process...
Custom controls require hacker-ish skills and the ability to understand systems and how the integrate, whereas application development I find requires a more formal approach to solving the problems your faced with. Your more likely to concern yourself with long term maintenance, etc...
As a custom control in Windows parlance has a write once and use it forever feel to it...of course this is only an ideal situation...when windows switched from Win16 to Win32 many controls I am sure had to be re-written
Although the Windows API has remained pretty stable for as long as i've been developing software for it. This make writting portable (across Windows OS anyways) controls much easier...
Comments?
Cheers