Mapscript programming

[Juan Carlos Castaneda]

Dear List,

I am newbie to Mapserver and I was wondering where to start programming.
I need to create a web application but I don't want to use the CGI
Mapserver. I would like to program my own application -apply my own
security, querying other resources,...
I have been reading the documentation available about Mapscript and as
far as I could figure there are 2 flavours: PHP and those languages that
use SWIG. Both access the Mapserver C API.

I was wondering if you could give me pros/cons of both aproaches (PHP vs
SWIG). I have
felt like if you are going with SWIG you are pretty much on your own,
while the documentation for PHP is better. I have some background
programming in Java - servlets and I would like to continue programming
on that. Are there any differences between Linux/Windows?

Thank you for your help

Regards,

Juan C