[olug] PHP vs. Perl

[Joe Catanzaro]

I'm in the process of building a web page for my family (we just had a 
baby, blah, blah, blah), and I have several questions.

1. Most of my web page data, such as photos are stored in a MySQL database. 
To manage the database I use MySQLMan by Gossamer-Threads 
http://www.gossamer-threads.com/scripts/mysqlman/ , and it's a great web 
interface to manage the database, but when it lists the photos on the web 
page, it displays them as they are stored, rather than as they should 
appear (funky garbage characters). Can someone recommend a web interface to 
manage a MySQL database? I've heard of PHPmyadmin. Any good? If so, does it 
display photo images rather than a bunch of garbage characters all over the 
screen?

2. To extract these photos and other data (text and video) from the 
database, I normally use Perl's DBI. Is there any advantage in learning PHP 
to create these web pages? The reason I'm asking this question here is 
because of the survey I saw posted on OLUG that most people prefer PHP over 
Perl to create web pages. 
http://www.olug.org/modules.php?name=Surveys&op=results&pollID=10&mode=&order=&thold=

3. I'm using a MySQL database in hopes all of this is going to scale no 
matter how many photos I've got in that database. Are there any 
disadvantages to building my site in this manner or have I assumed 
correctly that this is a best practice?

Thanks in advance and have a very Happy Thanksgiving,




Joe Catanzaro
joecatanzaro at cox.net