Web development code doesn’t exist in a vacuum. How you code and final outcome hinges on the circumstances of how your code interacts with other processes and systems. Iteration is the first technical challenge for a web developer when switching to another language. Iteration is the amount of steps and time it takes to view changes made to your application.

There is JavaScript, technically known as ECMAScript that runs entirely on your customers web browser and then there is “Java”. Here is a diagram of where deployed Java is hosted:

After a web application is deployed for Java, it resides in this stack above. This is after developing for various components of the diagram above. Each component has a plethora of API’s, frameworks, and multiple associated files may link to a single piece of code. Don’t be surprised when the end result is "Fizz Buzz".

Besides the complexity, the iteration factor in this language is compilation after every code change.

Now let’s look at a well known and familiar diagram of PHP.

PHP language was designed to be a template engine. To this day you find PHP tags coinciding with HTML markup. The organization of application is completely left for developers to decide. What frameworks to use if any, various types of code, processes that store and retrieve the source code in a repository, and how final results are tested.

The iteration factor in PHP language is simply reloading of your application view or page in a common web browser after making changes. Provided there isn’t web server cache.

There is another language that was designed to be a template engine, VBScript served through ASP – Active Server Pages. The iteration factor is same for ASP as it is for PHP.

The increase in iteration factor is the result of the size of team you are working with, DevOps processes for each deployment and managerial evaluation.