SANTA CRUZ, USA: Developers using PHP are more satisfied than users of other scripting languages including Ruby, Python, Perl, Java script, Flex and VB script according to an Evans Data user satisfaction survey released this week.

Over 500 developers were asked to rate the features of scripting languages that they personally use across 12 different categories.

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PHP received the highest overall score while Ruby did best in ease of use and exception handling, and Python was tops in extensibility and memory management.

Java script was best for client-side scripting, while F# got the best score for security. PHP was rated best in everything else.

"Scripting languages play a significant role in the software application development landscape with just over 60 percent of all developers indicating they use some form in their development efforts," said John Andrews, president and CEO of Evans Data,

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He added, "We forecast continued increasing adoption as a result of greater emphasis of web and front end development continues."

The study concluded that PHP was the best all around scripting language for web applications with a large community and lots of readily available tools. Ruby was the easiest to use and thus the most accessible, but suffers from performance problems and a tiny community, while Python showed itself to be the best suited for creating large and complex applications.

User Choice Satisfaction surveys are conducted several times a year by Evans Data as a free service to the development community. The full survey report can be downloaded here: view report

Languages in the survey included: Actionscript, Flex, Java Script, Microsoft F#, Windows Powershell, Perl, PHP, Python, Ruby and VB Script.