The real problem with PHP is that (despite the ability to run it from command line, etc...) a language centered around web application. That's also it's greates

The real problem with PHP is that (despite the ability to run it from command line, etc...) a language centered around web application. That's also it's greatest strength: it's seamless and easy to integrate with Apache. I wonder why the author wouldn't consider Perl: powerful Apache integration (mod_perl), performance and great deal of expressive power. A PHP code monkey could be trained to modify Perl and the presence of powerful and mature testing tools (e.g. Test::More) and common libraries (DBI, myriad of XML libraries, template libraries, etc...) can minimize the amount of damage a junior coder will do. (And if you're unable to use mod_perl, using CGI::Fast suffices for most cases and is trivial with mod_fastcgi).