Your argument reminds me of a debate I ran into about using pocket hole jigs. The experts would make hand carved mortis and tenon joints and consistently attacked and ridiculed pocket hole jigs. And said no professional would ever use pocket hole jigs.
Ikea does a lot of business and I wish they'd use pocket holes on their furniture instead of some of the ghastly connectors that fall apart.
Getting things done and running a business are primary goals of software... There was a time when mysql was ridiculed mercilessly as well.
You’re right about some aspects and I am about others. PHP is good for certain projects. MySQL works well for some cases. However many experienced people prefer other tools for good reasons.
Personally I grew weary of having this conversation about PHP and MySQL about 9 years ago (you’re aware of this long history, right? This is like talking about the reasons for the civil war). Nobody needs to point out that WordPress is build on PHP, or that Flickr used it, or god forbid Facebook.
The strengths and benefits relative to other software has been debated to death in blogs, articles, forums, and mailing lists for a decade at least. I doubt we can break new ground here.
Haven’t visited your website but I visited your profile. I’m assuming that you are writing a CMS in PHP?
I generally agree there's probably no point in discussing this without an end game. So here's one:
Do you believe that python/ruby/go/node.js/etc.. can replace php and do a better job?
I haven't heard a recent apples to apples comparison, and the ones from the past have faded in relevance because of improvements made in php. I suspect that is because there are business reasons php runs circles around other solutions, and that technical superiority doesn't mean financially superior. (how many key google products run on javascript?)
If php is going to go away, it needs a jquery moment like this:
I am actively gutting all jquery from all my projects because it truly needs to go away because something better came along to replace it. I haven't seen that with php yet and I have looked because I want my business to stay running and not fall behind because of a poor platform choice.
Of course I believe that Python (etc) can replace PHP and do a better job. Isn’t that the entire topic? There’s no question in my mind whatsoever. I stopped using PHP in favor of Python in 2011 and would not consider reversing that under any circumstances. I’m quite experienced with both languages and PHP utterly lacks elegance. It’s not even close to something I’d consider using or supporting. Not sure what your perspective is based on.
I mean, I’d never consider eating at McDonald’s under any circumstances whatsoever, but somehow they stay open and people appear to patronize their stores intentionally. So, tastes vary. If you like a bunch of dollar signs, semi colons, illogically arranged standard library, endless inconsistencies and poorly thought out syntax, don’t change a thing.
Where is PHP popular? Or standard? I’m not even sure what you’re referring to. People still use PHP?
Okay, so it’s way behind Python, JavaScript, C# as far as common web programming languages. Beating Perl. Sounds about right for something as outdated as PHP.
My recommendation to you is to hurry up and learn how to setup your web server for Python.
I am interested in making good choices for my business so I am taking your feedback seriously.
-Popularity:
I don't think it's wise to choose your platform on popularity. The masses make terrible choices all the time. But at the same time I found numbers as high as 80% of the web is running php. (numbers can vary based on metrics, traffic running php vs number of sites)
But then python is way less popular than javascript, so if I would accept your argument on popularity shouldn't I use javascript with node.js?
-Standards:
This is a more appealing argument to be made. But unfortunately I make custom software for running websites, the standard is the output, html,css and js. The backend is irrelevant to my users. This would only affect long term maintenance, of which I am not seeing a jquery moment here.
Care to elaborate on why php is going to cause long term maintenance problems or how it's non-standard in some way?
-Python can do a better job than php:
I did a couple quick performance searches and just in the past couple years php7 has made huge improvements in performance. What this says to me is that php7 is being improved consistently.
Does python run websites better than php? If so, in what way? I couldn't see a clear answer for this.
Also, since my customers never see or touch either python or php, I am not sure how I could judge if python "does a better job" for my customers.
-Php is outdated:
What is your metric for measuring something is outdated? I am not sure this is possible with a programming language this is actively being improved and used. Is this a popularity argument?
-Php is like McDonalds:
While I don't eat at McDonalds, I can easily say that R is nasty to code with, yet I am just fine dealing with it's idiosyncrasies because my friend does the majority of the coding with it, and I help with cleanup and integration.
And python simply is not better enough (or at all) than R in every respect for math processing. (this is from testing results from my friend who does math/data analysis/statistics) It may be equivalent in some ways, but certainly not better.
-Php is messy:
The "bunch of dollar signs, semi colons..." argument would fit with javascript as well (especially when mixed with libraries), so your arguments are conflicting some.
Would my customers be better served if my codebase had a more simple syntax? I am not sure this is even possible. But I am willing to hear arguments on this.
You’re all set if you like what you’re using. I appreciate that you’re thinking this through. I would prefer a language that was designed intelligently from the ground up by experts, like Python. PHP seems to be gradually emerging as a good design through trial and error, which is valid I suppose.
Ikea does a lot of business and I wish they'd use pocket holes on their furniture instead of some of the ghastly connectors that fall apart.
Getting things done and running a business are primary goals of software... There was a time when mysql was ridiculed mercilessly as well.