6 ms·

I'm using Laravel/PHP for a new project and it's been a joy. A true joy. After spending the last 6+ years writing backend services in Node, PHP feels like a bre

I'm using Laravel/PHP for a new project and it's been a joy. A true joy. After spending the last 6+ years writing backend services in Node, PHP feels like a breath of fresh air. No restarting the server, no compiling errors from babel/typescript wackiness, no blocking threads, server-side templates out-of-the-box, and so much more. PHP has come a really long way, I really hope to see it's resurgence some day after everyone has been burned enough from running JavaScript as their server.

minimaul 5y ago
I'm writing PHP8 with the Symfony 5.3 framework at present too, and I'm also liking it. Provides what I need to build with and otherwise stays out the way. The improvements over the lifespan of PHP7, and the new things in PHP8 make PHP such a nicer language to work with.
tyingq 5y ago
Not my cup of tea, but if you really want PHP-like with JS, EJS looks really close to "I wish server-side javascript worked like PHP": https://ejs.co/ https://ejs.co/ Just needs a FastCGI wrapper. Another "Node, but PHP like" project that compares itself to EJS and other similar things: https://github.com/Yahweasel/nodejs-server-pages#why-nodejs-server-pages https://github.com/Yahweasel/nodejs-server-pages#why-nodejs-...
- deleted 5y ago
  [deleted]
osrec 5y ago
It's so nice to see a comment giving PHP the praise it deserves. Honestly, PHP is a good, if not great, language to use for building solid web apps fast. People seem to love to hate it because it's the "cool" thing to do. Yet PHP developers continue to ship things faster, while JS devs are probably still fiddling with their Node environment setup...
- hakfoo 5y ago
  Much more than most other languages, PHP is purpose-built for serving web requests. For example, PHP could get along without async/await and promises in a lot of situations, because threading was effectively subcontracted to the underlying web-server. You could just treat, say, a curl call as blocking-- resulting in a simpler code flow-- knowing that wouldn't lock your entire web server.
- tlackemann 5y ago
  Not only shipping things faster but testing faster, scaffolding faster, debugging faster ... the tooling for PHP is much more mature than it was 6-years ago and there are so many GOOD packages out there that haven't been forked and copied 20x over. Really happy to be working with it again, even if on the side for now.
  - TrispusAttucks 5y ago
    I agree. Developer speed does not get enough coverage when comparing languages. When I work with a Node project it's such a slow dragging build process. Using PHP is like a fun superpower that lets me turn out things on timescales that are borderline miraculous to clients and management.
    - tlackemann 5y ago
      Hiring developers is rarely considered as well. I can hire a top-notch PHP engineer for half of what a mid-level JS engineer would be asking. It's not that PHP engineers are less qualified than JS. I think bootcamps shifted the market for JS developers and now really good engineers cost an arm and a leg while good junior engineers start around the $100k mark. The whole JS salary market is insane and as a startup, I can't afford it right now.
      - no_wizard 5y ago
        I think it’s interesting to me, as I see these comments a lot with PHP specifically and there is at any honest pushback on this, so here’s my attempt: Just pay what good engineers should be paid. If there are PHP developers out there not getting the same salary as a their peers like this post mentions, you should leave that job for a better one. Please demand better, PHP developers, for all of our sakes. Business always wants to put downward pressure on salary and we need to be united against this regardless of preferred tech stacks
sandreas 5y ago
If you really want things to happen fast, you can also take a look at api platform: https://api-platform.com/ https://api-platform.com/
nunodonato 5y ago
same here. Been using Laravel has my framework of choice of my freelance work and I'm able to accomplish things fast. I just love to use it everyday!
deleted 5y ago
[deleted]

minimaul 5y ago

I'm writing PHP8 with the Symfony 5.3 framework at present too, and I'm also liking it. Provides what I need to build with and otherwise stays out the way. The improvements over the lifespan of PHP7, and the new things in PHP8 make PHP such a nicer language to work with.

tyingq 5y ago

Not my cup of tea, but if you really want PHP-like with JS, EJS looks really close to "I wish server-side javascript worked like PHP": https://ejs.co/ https://ejs.co/ Just needs a FastCGI wrapper. Another "Node, but PHP like" project that compares itself to EJS and other similar things: https://github.com/Yahweasel/nodejs-server-pages#why-nodejs-server-pages https://github.com/Yahweasel/nodejs-server-pages#why-nodejs-...

deleted 5y ago
[deleted]

osrec 5y ago

It's so nice to see a comment giving PHP the praise it deserves. Honestly, PHP is a good, if not great, language to use for building solid web apps fast. People seem to love to hate it because it's the "cool" thing to do. Yet PHP developers continue to ship things faster, while JS devs are probably still fiddling with their Node environment setup...

hakfoo 5y ago
Much more than most other languages, PHP is purpose-built for serving web requests. For example, PHP could get along without async/await and promises in a lot of situations, because threading was effectively subcontracted to the underlying web-server. You could just treat, say, a curl call as blocking-- resulting in a simpler code flow-- knowing that wouldn't lock your entire web server.
tlackemann 5y ago
Not only shipping things faster but testing faster, scaffolding faster, debugging faster ... the tooling for PHP is much more mature than it was 6-years ago and there are so many GOOD packages out there that haven't been forked and copied 20x over. Really happy to be working with it again, even if on the side for now.
- TrispusAttucks 5y ago
  I agree. Developer speed does not get enough coverage when comparing languages. When I work with a Node project it's such a slow dragging build process. Using PHP is like a fun superpower that lets me turn out things on timescales that are borderline miraculous to clients and management.
  - tlackemann 5y ago
    Hiring developers is rarely considered as well. I can hire a top-notch PHP engineer for half of what a mid-level JS engineer would be asking. It's not that PHP engineers are less qualified than JS. I think bootcamps shifted the market for JS developers and now really good engineers cost an arm and a leg while good junior engineers start around the $100k mark. The whole JS salary market is insane and as a startup, I can't afford it right now.
    - no_wizard 5y ago
      I think it’s interesting to me, as I see these comments a lot with PHP specifically and there is at any honest pushback on this, so here’s my attempt: Just pay what good engineers should be paid. If there are PHP developers out there not getting the same salary as a their peers like this post mentions, you should leave that job for a better one. Please demand better, PHP developers, for all of our sakes. Business always wants to put downward pressure on salary and we need to be united against this regardless of preferred tech stacks

sandreas 5y ago

If you really want things to happen fast, you can also take a look at api platform: https://api-platform.com/ https://api-platform.com/

nunodonato 5y ago

same here. Been using Laravel has my framework of choice of my freelance work and I'm able to accomplish things fast. I just love to use it everyday!

deleted 5y ago

[deleted]