Can someone please tell me why everyone is so anti-php these days. I'm been working on my web project this summer in php, and it seems like every self proclaimed web 2.0 site is choosing either python or ruby.
I feel like I'm on the wrong side of the road, and php is web 1.0. I wonder though, do users care what language the site is made in? And has usuability and quality of a site become determined by programming language?
To answer your question, the only thing users care about is what your site does and if it does it well. The only people who care are the other people who are developing websites as well.
Basically I see the PHP backlash coming out of many painful personal experiences that hit the limitations/drawbacks of PHP. I've maintained a large social networking site written by someone else and I can tell you it was a stinking pile of spaghetti.
I think the power comes from using a framework like RoR of Django that abstracts aways common parts of web development. Plus I see it as a way to keep from reinventing the wheel which leads to simpler code. And we all love simple code.
Good point, adamdoupe. I've created a large project in straight PHP and it was a mess. Now I work with CakePHP, a framework similar to Rails, and it's 100... no, 1000... times cleaner and more scalable!
PHP lowers the barriers to entry for web programming, which is a good thing. It also means that a lot of really shitty code gets written. At my last job, we had one file that was 10,000 lines long. Basically, I never want to touch PHP again after that job.
PHP is just a rather nasty language. It's got a lot going for it, in terms of deploy-ability, scalability, existing libraries and code, and number of developers and designers who are familiar with it, but it's also got a horribly inconsistent standard library, poorly implemented seemingly Java-inspired objects, and a vast majority of the existing code is poorly written.
There are some impressive PHP projects out there, with pretty clean code (I've been pleased by the quality of code in Dokuwiki and Flyspray, for example), and you can't beat PHP with a stick for availability--you can deploy a PHP app on the cheapest Dreamhost account and expect it to work just fine. That cannot be said of RoR, Django, or Catalyst applications (and don't even think about Lisp or Haskell or Erlang in that context).
I feel like I'm on the wrong side of the road, and php is web 1.0. I wonder though, do users care what language the site is made in? And has usuability and quality of a site become determined by programming language?