Most webhosts support Perl/CGI scripting. Check out hotscripts.com. If they don’t support that either, your chances of using server scripting at all are pretty slim (but you could go for ASP/Python/Java hosts, though).
It doesn’t have to be PHP but your host does have to support scripting of some sort. Most hosts provide PHP, Perl and/or Python for scripting. You’ll also almost certainly need access to a database of some sort.
Well it’s possible to make a website with xhtml/css only that looks incredible proffesional. But when you start to think og user accounts, generated photo galleries and more, you would need to have php installed. Ofcourse you can bother yourself with perl and cgi, but that’s not really needed. MySQL and PHP together will give you the ability to do everything you want.
Now, generating website content and having a content management system, doesn’t really need php or MySQL. I’ve tried to make a simple content management system with python and it worked pretty good.
The positive side of this is, that you don’t have to edit your website online, but use some self made python script that connects to your ftp account and get all needed data to edit your website.
The problem is, it needs a lot of time to create a CMS with python, and a hack of a work to make it easely edit your website.
Anyways, stick with php and MySQL. It’s all free, and some free hosting website already have php and MySQL acces. Just google around.
Else go to some provider offering a complete proffesional webhost for 5 dollar a month. I thought something about BlueHost, I heard pretty good things about that one.
Do I need php in order to have and manage dynamic content
You could also use ASP or JSP, wich I don’t recommend.
If I do need php, is there a way to get it working on webspace that doesn’t support php scripting (like emulation software etc…)
Not that I know of… But you could ask your provider to install PHP… You could for instance tell them that almost every respectable provider nowadays supports PHP.
If I do need php and I have no choice but to switch to a web host that supports php, which webhost should I take?
I used www.hostexellence.com for my last project. I was very satisfied with their support.
Instead of installing all of these seperately your could install a package wich does this all-in-one and just sets up a local webserver the easy way.
Do a google search for this. (I don’t use this but I remember PHPtriad is one of them)…
