I tend to bounce back and forth between Perl and PHP depending on the language chosen for the project. I've started writing a simple DB table-wrapper in both Perl and PHP with the same methods. Whenever I switch languages, I often have to readjust to the database APIs - which are often similar enough to be confusing. I've never used a PHP native db interface - only the DB generic Pear::DB and superior AdoDB.

The great thing about sharing a similar abstraction in both languages is that I can use either Perl's CGI::Application or the PHP port and pretty much develop with a similar structure, regardless of the language. My preference is Perl of course - it has a number of fantastic tricks up its sleeve that make it a joy to use. I loooove CGI::Application::Plugin::ValidateRM