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PHP is the Toyota Corolla of programming languages. Not many are passionate about the Corolla, but it's one of the most widely driven cars in America. I chall

PHP is the Toyota Corolla of programming languages. Not many are passionate about the Corolla, but it's one of the most widely driven cars in America. I challenge you to come up with a better car analogy.

fiedzia 10y ago
> Not many are passionate about the Corolla But there is also nothing particularly wrong with it. It may not be better, but it has no worse maintenance record, crash record, or accident survival rate then average car. (In software world, that would be perhaps java). To come with better analogy - PHP is like a 15+ yo car imported from neighbour country because that's the only thing you can afford. Its popular and you'll see it all around in you area, so you may be unaware that better cars even exist. It can be used, but something breaks every 50km, the rust has eaten so much that any minor collision will get you killed, and you'll see people frantically repairing it with duck tape on every street to ever get home. But yeah, you can drive one. And have you heard that next year the tax will be lowered, so you may be able to afford 14 yo cars, life is getting so much better here.
- colshrapnel 10y ago
  In fact PHP7 as well as PHP fork called HackLang used in Facebook are brand new cars and the latter even produced in your own country.
  - fiedzia 10y ago
    Some of the painting is new, but the engine (stdlib) remains the same.
    - colshrapnel 10y ago
      So you are blaming PHP's excellent backward compatibility. Why I am not surprised? :)
      - fiedzia 10y ago
        I just oppose naming it "brand new". Its largely still just as broken as it always was. Fixing one issue per release will maybe get PHP to state comparable with other languages somewhere in the next century (if they stand still in the meantime). Also PHP could easily add sane new stdlib if it wanted to, and keep supporting the old one as long as people want to. I just don't think anyone is really interested in doing so. Most PHP users don't care much, and few large companies that fund the work are mainly focused on keeping the ship from sinking.
        NormlOverrated 10y ago
        >I just don't think anyone is really interested in doing so. Most PHP users don't care much They care. They are interested. But backwards compatibility is a huge issue. PHP7 is much better, it's faster, it uses less resources, and yet you still have hosts running PHP 5.3, some even running 5.2! How do you combat a crowd like that? I don't want PHP to get stuck in IE6 mode, and I sure hope the community voices their valid criticism and takes action.
        fiedzia 10y ago
        > They care. They are interested. Have they really been, PHP issues would be fixed long time ago. It had 7 major releases, and people complain about exactly the same things. All the people I know who complain about it and switch to something else say the exact same things, no matter what PHP version they've left behind. Those who do care simply go somewhere else, only those who do not or have massive codebase to support stay. > PHP7 is much better Lets agree to disagree on that. Its not better enough to draw any of PHP opponents to it. > you still have hosts running PHP 5.3, some even running 5.2! How do you combat a crowd like that? You don't. Let them be. There are people using PHP 1,2,3 and 4 somewhere out there. They may never switch. Why should it hold back the rest of the world? > I don't want PHP to get stuck in IE6 mode The whole PHP is its own IE6.
        dreistdreist 10y ago
- secstate 10y ago
  Haha! That analogy works so well. Especially when you consider the Bondo-esque way in which higher-level language constructs have been ... well, bondo-ed on to the language.
- eastindex 10y ago
  >> PHP is like a 15+ yo car imported from neighbour country What about Python ?
  - fiedzia 10y ago
    Car of the year from 2015. Not the shiniest toy anymore, but has everything you may need and you can get very good deal on it.
    - dreistdreist 10y ago
      Except it doesn't have type hinting. Which is something you definitely need if you want to write good OOP software as described by the literature (Clean Code, Code Complete, Effective Java etc).
      - fiedzia 10y ago
        Type hinting is not exactly there yet, but its coming. You can already write: def foo(x:int) -> int: return x+1 to get hints in your IDE (though its not enforced yet by interpreter).
crimsonalucard 10y ago
Php is like the people who voted for president bush.. Aka the majority.
bbcbasic 10y ago
PHP is a child's kick scooter. Easy to learn and you can move fast. You're halfway to the shops before the car driver has put it in reverse to back out of their driveway.

fiedzia 10y ago

> Not many are passionate about the Corolla But there is also nothing particularly wrong with it. It may not be better, but it has no worse maintenance record, crash record, or accident survival rate then average car. (In software world, that would be perhaps java). To come with better analogy - PHP is like a 15+ yo car imported from neighbour country because that's the only thing you can afford. Its popular and you'll see it all around in you area, so you may be unaware that better cars even exist. It can be used, but something breaks every 50km, the rust has eaten so much that any minor collision will get you killed, and you'll see people frantically repairing it with duck tape on every street to ever get home. But yeah, you can drive one. And have you heard that next year the tax will be lowered, so you may be able to afford 14 yo cars, life is getting so much better here.

colshrapnel 10y ago
In fact PHP7 as well as PHP fork called HackLang used in Facebook are brand new cars and the latter even produced in your own country.
- fiedzia 10y ago
  Some of the painting is new, but the engine (stdlib) remains the same.
  - colshrapnel 10y ago
    So you are blaming PHP's excellent backward compatibility. Why I am not surprised? :)
    - fiedzia 10y ago
      I just oppose naming it "brand new". Its largely still just as broken as it always was. Fixing one issue per release will maybe get PHP to state comparable with other languages somewhere in the next century (if they stand still in the meantime). Also PHP could easily add sane new stdlib if it wanted to, and keep supporting the old one as long as people want to. I just don't think anyone is really interested in doing so. Most PHP users don't care much, and few large companies that fund the work are mainly focused on keeping the ship from sinking.
      - NormlOverrated 10y ago
        >I just don't think anyone is really interested in doing so. Most PHP users don't care much They care. They are interested. But backwards compatibility is a huge issue. PHP7 is much better, it's faster, it uses less resources, and yet you still have hosts running PHP 5.3, some even running 5.2! How do you combat a crowd like that? I don't want PHP to get stuck in IE6 mode, and I sure hope the community voices their valid criticism and takes action.
        fiedzia 10y ago
        > They care. They are interested. Have they really been, PHP issues would be fixed long time ago. It had 7 major releases, and people complain about exactly the same things. All the people I know who complain about it and switch to something else say the exact same things, no matter what PHP version they've left behind. Those who do care simply go somewhere else, only those who do not or have massive codebase to support stay. > PHP7 is much better Lets agree to disagree on that. Its not better enough to draw any of PHP opponents to it. > you still have hosts running PHP 5.3, some even running 5.2! How do you combat a crowd like that? You don't. Let them be. There are people using PHP 1,2,3 and 4 somewhere out there. They may never switch. Why should it hold back the rest of the world? > I don't want PHP to get stuck in IE6 mode The whole PHP is its own IE6.
        dreistdreist 10y ago
secstate 10y ago
Haha! That analogy works so well. Especially when you consider the Bondo-esque way in which higher-level language constructs have been ... well, bondo-ed on to the language.
eastindex 10y ago
>> PHP is like a 15+ yo car imported from neighbour country What about Python ?
- fiedzia 10y ago
  Car of the year from 2015. Not the shiniest toy anymore, but has everything you may need and you can get very good deal on it.
  - dreistdreist 10y ago
    Except it doesn't have type hinting. Which is something you definitely need if you want to write good OOP software as described by the literature (Clean Code, Code Complete, Effective Java etc).
    - fiedzia 10y ago
      Type hinting is not exactly there yet, but its coming. You can already write: def foo(x:int) -> int: return x+1 to get hints in your IDE (though its not enforced yet by interpreter).

crimsonalucard 10y ago

Php is like the people who voted for president bush.. Aka the majority.

bbcbasic 10y ago

PHP is a child's kick scooter. Easy to learn and you can move fast. You're halfway to the shops before the car driver has put it in reverse to back out of their driveway.