Most admins tend to use the shell, Perl,or Python if they need a system administration script. But there is no need for web programmers to learn another language just to script a routine task. PHP gives admins the power to program command-line tools and even complete web interfaces.

Most web libraries make 90 percent of the job simple and the rest impossible. Rails,an open source framework programmed in Ruby,is flexible enough to succeed with that remaining 10 percent.