Interpreted vs. Compiled Languages for Web Sites (PHP, ASP, Perl, Python, etc.)

Question

I build database-driven web sites. Previously I have used Perl or PHP with MySQL.

Now I am starting a big new project, and I want to do it in the way that will result in

Answer 1

Perl isn't an interpreted language: it is compiled to bytecode, so you pay the price of interpretation only when the perl executable is started. So when using it with Apache, don't use CGI but mod_perl.

Whatever you do, development time is probably going to widely exceed response time if you pick a language that isn't suitable to web programming or doesn't have good libraries to support what you need to do. E.g. I'd never pick C or C++. You don't want a web app that is blisteringly fast but buggy and 6 months late.