4 ms·

It would be interesting to compare PHP's growth with Ruby and Python. For a starting developer, does it still make more sense to learn PHP?

• jtreminio 14y ago
  There is an absolute glut of PHP positions right now, for both inexperienced and highly experienced developers. You'll have to be extra-diligent about making sure the sources you're learning from aren't full of security holes, however.
  • adamors 14y ago
    Security holes, or just bad practices in general. My biggest gripe with PHP is that every CMS, framework, custom built site uses a different style, some echo HTML some even output HTML in the middle of a class definition etc. I remember reading popular Joomla! extension that counted the number of elements in a one dimensional array with a for loop.
    • jtreminio 14y ago
      Drupal, Joomla or Wordpress are not examples of quality PHP products. They are extremely popular because they work, not because of their quality. If you want to see quality, look to the new generation PHP frameworks: Zend Framework 2, Symfony2, for example.
      • ceejayoz 14y ago
        It's an interesting definition of "quality" that doesn't include "the product works".
        • jtreminio 14y ago
          I didn't say it wouldn't include. A Ford Fiesta "works", but is not quality.
  • ErikAugust 14y ago
    Right, I think if you want to work professionally as a developer you can certainly find one maintaining PHP code. However, newer projects and startups are moving towards Python and Rails so if your goal is to be in that game, learn one of those.
    • jtreminio 14y ago
      Spreading FUD. There's an immeasurable amount of new work to be done in PHP. You have absolutely no numbers to back up your statement.
      • rbchv 14y ago
        Actually that's why I asked initially. You hear a lot about Python/Ruby these days, but I'm wondering if there is any data in the regards.
        • dubcanada 14y ago
          They are just the language of the year, this year it will probably be all about go and node.js and maybe next year it will be about Steve's Language and ASP. Moral of the story is, it's just whats in season this year. Some people will argue better languages, but really there are problems with all of them.
      • huherto 14y ago
        You are right. The parent comment is probably just wishing that the world is moving forward.
        • jasonm23 14y ago
          Yep, get ready for the BASIC revolution.
        • ErikAugust 14y ago
          Heh. Go figure. I make my money with PHP.
      • deleted 14y ago
• mddw 14y ago
  If you want to do freelance work, learning PHP (or ASP) is mandatory. Sure, Ruby is great, but you'll keep stumbling on : "our shared host is PHP only, we don't want to change for another" "we want wordpress" "our computer guys know a little PHP, we need PHP" "what the fuck is Ruby ?" So you'll try to educate your client, to explain why Ruby us great. But you'll fail, because most clients don't give a shit and, for their very basic needs, PHP is as good as ruby.
  • jasonm23 14y ago
    To be fair, the big problem is that EVERY language can go through the hands of the incompetent.
• krapp 14y ago
  I think it makes sense to learn PHP. The only money i'm making right now is javascript (working on Business Catalyst sites) and Wordpress (custom themes and plugins.) Many decent self-described programmers would consider it shitwork, and they'd probably be right... But there's a lot more PHP work out there right now than there is Python or Rails. (not that I know either... yet...)