I've been using PHP professionally since ~1999. I remember ripping the Perl fanboys in the early 2000's until the foundations of PHP started to crumble with what are issues that stick in peoples minds today; so I do wonder if we brought it on ourselves sometimes. But PHP moved on carefully to preserve backwards compatibility. I still have a SaaS first developed back in 2005 on the latest version of PHP that's happily ticking over with the minimal of maintenance required - the code base is horrendous but that's because a developer I had with me at the time made a massive case for "software design patterns" that he crowbarred into every nook and cranny regardless of if it was required or not.
I've done things with PHP that would give people nightmares. It's a far more capable language [1/2] than most realise and with version 8 bringing us JIT things just keep getting better. Would I use PHP if I was starting out today? Unlikely, but I know PHP inside out and can wield it to my wicked ends with ease so won't be dropping it anytime soon.
> Would I use PHP if I was starting out today? Unlikely, but I know PHP inside out and can wield it to my wicked ends with ease so won't be dropping it anytime soon.
So just out of curiosity, if you hypothetically did start learning web development today from scratch, what would you spend time learning instead of PHP?
When I started I struggled with browser inconsistencies. Over the years Javascript has come a long way and whilst I'm not 100% sold on node.js, I like the idea of using the same language across front and backend so likely would have gone down that road.
If after 20 years of PHP experience you arrived at "not 100% sold on node.js" as your most likely alternative, that to me more than anything else signals a strong, ongoing vote for PHP :)
There is plenty to dislike about javascript but modern versions are really quite nice. We're about to ship our first node backend having been largely a django shop up until now. There is loads to miss about django and python, but it is so nice to not have the context switching between languages and paradigms. It may not be for everyone, but if you're doing modern web, I think the starting point has become javascript everywhere, and then moving away from that on a use-case basis.
Piggybacking to say that if you're just starting out, I'd recommend choosing _anything_, as in, your choice of programming language ecosystem is ancillary to learning the broader technologies and patterns common to web applications. Know somebody who knows PHP you can bug? Use PHP. Find the idea of writing Python exciting? Use Python. Really like the tutorial / book you found for Ruby? Use Ruby. It doesn't matter.
I've done things with PHP that would give people nightmares. It's a far more capable language [1/2] than most realise and with version 8 bringing us JIT things just keep getting better. Would I use PHP if I was starting out today? Unlikely, but I know PHP inside out and can wield it to my wicked ends with ease so won't be dropping it anytime soon.
[1] https://stitcher.io/blog/php-in-2019
[2] https://stitcher.io/blog/php-in-2020