WebDNA vs. PHP

The best way to show the difference between the two languages is to compare the code required to do the same thing. Even a non-techie can see what's going on in the WebDNA example.

Do you want a directory file listing, with files and only files, removing unauthorized files and showing no file extension? There's a simple beauty in typing:

[listfiles path=./][showif [isfile]=T]
[if ("[fileName]" ^ ".png")|("[filename]" ^ ".swf")]
[then]
[grep search=\..*&replace=][filename][/grep]<br>
[/then]
[/if][/showif][/listfiles]

as opposed to unintuitive PHP code:

<?php   
function strip_ext($name) {
$ext = strrchr($name, '.');  
if($ext !== false) {  
$name = substr($name, 0, -strlen($ext));  
}
return $name;  
}  
function removeHyphen($filename) {  
$target = $filename;  
$patterns[0] = '/-/';  
$patterns[1] = '/_/';  
$replacements[0] = ' ';  
$replacements[1] = ' ';  
$filename = preg_replace($patterns, $replacements, $target);  
return $filename;  
}  
function capFirstWord($word) {  
$cap = $word;  
$cap = explode(' ', $cap);  
foreach($cap as $key => $value) {  
$cap[$key] = ucfirst($cap[$key]);  
}  
$word = implode(' ', $cap);  
return $word;  
}  
function formatFile($name) {  
$name = strip_ext($name);  
$name = removeHyphen($name);  
$name = capFirstWord($name);  
return $name;  
}  
$mydir = dir('./');  
$extension_blacklist = array("gif", "js", "css");  
$filter = array("config.php", "printpage.php"); 
while (($file = $mydir->read()) !== false)  
{  
$file_info = pathinfo($file);  
if ($file != "." && $file != ".." && !in_array($file, $filter) && !in_array($file_info['extension'], $extension_blacklist)) 
if(!is_dir($file)) 
{  
echo "<li><a href='./$file'>".formatFile($file)."</a></li>"; 
}  
}  
$mydir->close(); 
?>

Here another PHP vs. WebDNA example.

-Christophe Billiottet