Node was a very interesting thing back when it started. It was a hack, but a nice kind of hack. You could write some efficient servers with it. But then the community that formed around it, with it the project went berserk.
Well, kind of. Node was not a general purpose tool as conceived initially. You would write some I/O bound servers in it. And PHP too is not a general purpose tool, it is for writing interactive web pages (in its pre-Web2.0 sense) easily. Though Node.js was way more intellectually designed. I don't know much about PHP, but there's lots of literature (see https://eev.ee/blog/2012/04/09/php-a-fractal-of-bad-design/).
I really wish that people would stop referencing that "Fractal of Bad Design" article. It's outdated and mostly irrelevant now (April 2012, PHP was at 5.4 then, it's at 7.2 now). It's not that I want to defend PHP, I just think people should judge PHP for what it is now instead of what it was several major changes ago.
Besides, the author seems to misunderstand a great many things about PHP and languages in general. Here's a short rebuttal (also from April 2012): https://blog.ircmaxell.com/2012/04/php-sucks-but-i-like-it.h... that explains some of the misunderstandings.
Hmm are you sure? I've read the fractal of bad design many times.
Some issues might be "fixed" but could they fix the actual *fractal of bad design"?
Isn't it still a mix of c-style, java-style, inconcistent, left associative, horribly broken language it always was?
I always thought the bugs were anecdotal backing of the main point: php is badly designed, non programming language for non programmers, who suffer stockholm syndrome from all php abuse...
> Hmm are you sure? I've read the fractal of bad design many times.
Yeah, I'm sure. And so have I. Maybe you should stop reading it to reinforce your prejudice and instead take a look at PHP 7.2?
> non programming language for non programmers, who suffer stockholm syndrome from all php abuse...
Hating PHP is almost like a bad meme. Obviously it's doing something right otherwise it probably wouldn't be as popular as it is. (Same can be said for Javascript, I guess.)
Your personal feelings about the language are pretty much irrelevant. The Fractal of Bad Design article, however, is actually spreading misinformation yet people with an axe to grind keep referencing it because it fits their agenda, hence why I react whenever I see it referenced.
Here are just a couple of examples of where it's flat out wrong and/or completely outdated. There are plenty more.
He's left in things that were fixed long before he published the article — e.g. the new array syntax — but that doesn't stop him from saying stuff like "Despite that this is the language’s only data structure, there is no shortcut syntax for it; array(...) is shortcut syntax. (PHP 5.4 is bringing “literals”, [...].)" Keep in mind, 5.4 was already out when he wrote it...
Not to mention the whole section on "missing features" where he basically enumerates things that most certainly doesn't belong in a language's core but in separate libraries or part of a framework, and —
surprise! — those are all available in both libraries, frameworks, extensions, etc.
When it's invalid, maybe. The article you link says in the first three paragraphs:
---8<---
Whether you like PHP or not, go and read the article PHP: a fractal of bad design. It's well written by someone who really knows the language which is not true for most other articles about this topic. And there are numerous facts why PHP is badly designed on many levels. There is almost no FUD so it is also a great source for someone who wants to learn PHP really well (which is kind of sad).
I am surprised that I am able to live with PHP and even like it. Maybe I am badly designed too so that I am compatible with PHP. I was able to circumvent or mitigate most problems so the language doesn't bother me.
Anyway, there are several topics which are inaccurate or I don't agree with them. Here they are with no context so they probably wouldn't make much sense without reading the original article:
