Why I choose PHP as my web development language.

walter_l said:
icryrus's link (again): PHP: a fractal of bad design

Since I have not actively used PHP since the early 4.x days, I would really appreciate some responses on the blog post above by some of the more (and recently) experienced PHP guys. Are there counter arguments to the issues raised?
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I haven't used PHP recently but others who do have pointed out what they believe to be some flaws in the article but I think the overall point still stands.

There was a decent amount of discussion about the article on the PHP subreddit (http://reddit.com/r/php).

bin3 said:
@walter_l: A language is as good as the user: The problem with PHP is that it allows a bad coder to do bad things, very, very easily - It also allows a good coder to do amazing things.
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A good developer can achieve their goals no matter the language (often, and in PHP's case always, in spite of the language) , but PHP is in no way enabling something that wouldn't be easier or better in another language.
 
Having come from a purely perl background and then moved into PHP I have brought a lot of my coding standards along with me, so a lot of the things that the article complains about don't really influence me.

Case in point, I never put PHP code in my HTML, I only ever have PHP generate my HTML. This may seem strange to the larger portion of PHP devs but it makes sense to me and insures that my code is immaculately formatted and laid out.

The one thing that really bothers me about PHP though, is the seriously hap-hazed naming conventions for the built-in functions. Seriously, can't they standardise them??? If it wasn't for Google, sometimes I would be really stumped.
 
For me, I think the most damning indictment of PHP is that I haven't met a single good (imho :) ) developer who prefers PHP over Python, Ruby, et al, if they've given any of those languages a fair run. I haven't met a half decent developer who after a couple of projects in Python doesn't prefer it over PHP.

I have met plenty of godawful developers who swear that PHP is unicorn milk and that Python, Ruby, Java, etc are impossibly complicated. Their code more oft than not resembles unicorn bowel movements though.
 
nexxus said:
For me, I think the most damning indictment of PHP is that I haven't met a single good (imho :) ) developer who prefers PHP over Python, Ruby, et al, if they've given any of those languages a fair run. I haven't met a half decent developer who after a couple of projects in Python doesn't prefer it over PHP.

I have met plenty of godawful developers who swear that PHP is unicorn milk and that Python, Ruby, Java, etc are impossibly complicated. Their code more oft than not resembles unicorn bowel movements though.
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Your sentiment is beautifully summarised in Eevee's blog post (yes, the same one) and, to me, is about the highlight of the post:
eevee said:
Very few people designing it, working on it, or writing code in it seem to know what they’re doing. ...Those who do grow a clue tend to drift away to other platforms, reducing the average competence of the whole. This, right here, is the biggest problem with PHP: it is absolutely the blind leading the blind.
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Roo! said:
Case in point, I never put PHP code in my HTML, I only ever have PHP generate my HTML. This may seem strange to the larger portion of PHP devs but it makes sense to me and insures that my code is immaculately formatted and laid out.
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the fact that the above seems strange to a large portion of PHP devs, is basically the root of the problem :)

php devs just dont know better. once they get exposed to other things, they dont want to go back.
one of my senior PHP devs has been working in Java/JSP for the last year, and now refuses to go back.
 
You have to stay agnostic and pick the right language for the job and PHP has it's place. But I would advise anyone to stay away from it if at all possible.
 
icyrus said:
PHP is a truly terrible language.
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Gotta agree there.
But - even though I am in the MS ecosystem - ASP.NET sucks too.

MVC looks interesting, but I hate web stuff in general so I spend my time slitting my wrists instead.
 
roguemat said:
Gotta agree there.
But - even though I am in the MS ecosystem - ASP.NET sucks too.

MVC looks interesting, but I hate web stuff in general so I spend my time slitting my wrists instead.
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Couldn't agree with you more! That being said though, it is built on a solid framework and language, just a terrible implementation. ASP MVC 3 with Razor is amazing though! Again, I wouldn't use it for a quick site, but for a heavy web app it works like a dream.
 
Spring MVC 3.1

small sites, large sites, it's amazing. super fast and infinitely powerful
 
Frikkenator said:
Couldn't agree with you more! That being said though, it is built on a solid framework and language, just a terrible implementation. ASP MVC 3 with Razor is amazing though! Again, I wouldn't use it for a quick site, but for a heavy web app it works like a dream.
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I think its good for a quick site, you can work pretty fast with it. Very clean framework. I havent tried many other frameworks though.
 
PHP is easy than many other languages. It is an open source and also the documentation is freely available for any kind of scripting. Also there are so many frameworks built using PHP which really ease the task to develop a website. As a result there are many who prefer PHP as their programming langauge for web development.

Regards,
SibzSolutions.com
http://www.sibzsolutions.com
 
+1 PHP was the second language I picked up after HTML.. It might not be the best out there but I really enjoy it and If you know how to structure your code/site properly then you won't have any problems with it. It's all about the foundation. I see far more PHP sites/apps on a daily basis as a developer than ASP. Not that I'm putting ASP down but after studying It in the MCSD I still prefer PHP.
As developers we shouldn't pigeon hole our self's into a select few languages. Every Language has it's strength's and that is where it should be applied. :) Thank goodness we have a choice.
 
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