they're not the same, nor is PHP an updated version of PERL. however they are similar in some senses.
PERL was originally developed for text processing, fulfilling the need for dynamic web environments. people used to prefer it to C, because although PERL is slower, C can easily produce security holes if not used carefully. so PERL's lack of speed was out-weighed by it's secure nature.
PHP was written specifically for the web. it's a language in itself which means that unlike ASP, you dont simply use another language [vbscript or jscript] within it, you are using it anyway. it's better than PERL cos you dont have to intall lots of modules to allow you to write database driven environments, PHP makes the data available to you already. PHP is lightning fast when run on a server, not like PERL as a CGI.
HOWEVER.... i much prefer ASP, even though I've had to do some stuff in PHP for clients, due to their servers. ASP is just generally nicer to use and more friendly, and it's so so so much easier to pick up, cos you can you javascript (called jscript...) or vbscript in it, so if you've done any Visual Basic programming or already know javascript, it's really easy to pick up. having said that, php is really similar to javascript (apart from its server-side stuff) so it's really easy to pick up also.
so there you are
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