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That's fine, and I don't think that using PHP for a project is necessarily a bad decision. That said, there are a lot of factors to consider. PHP developers and

That's fine, and I don't think that using PHP for a project is necessarily a bad decision. That said, there are a lot of factors to consider. PHP developers and say, Ruby or Python developers are generally rather different types of people. You'll get a lot more exposure to new ideas and practices from the latter. Unit testing is still a 'weird new thing' in the PHP community, at least where I'm living. If you aren't even considering what language to use, you're going to miss out on a lot of potential benefits. Further, the cost is not on par with re-tooling a factory. Any competent developer can switch languages, especially between very similar languages like PHP/Python/Ruby/Perl, in a pretty quick window. Learning the tools that go along with that language does take some time, but I think that amount of time is generally overstated.

oneeyedpigeon 13y ago
PHP developers and say, Ruby or Python developers are generally rather different types of people Any competent developer can switch languages, especially between very similar languages like PHP/Python/Ruby Those two statements are contradictory. My own stance is that it's rude to stereotype anyone as a 'PHP developer' and infer that, in some way, that means they're 'different' from a Ruby developer.
- nbouscal 13y ago
  They're not contradictory at all. People who present themselves as PHP developers tend to have a set of common differences from people who present themselves as Ruby or Python developers. That doesn't mean that the competent among both groups are incapable of quickly switching languages. It might mean that the percentage of competent developers is different between the two groups. It's basically the Dead Sea Effect[1], but with languages. Generally better developers will want to use better languages. That shouldn't be surprising. Hopefully we don't have to rehash the argument about the fact that some languages are better than others, since we're on HN and pg has covered that point in great depth. [1] http://brucefwebster.com/2008/04/11/the-wetware-crisis-the-dead-sea-effect/ http://brucefwebster.com/2008/04/11/the-wetware-crisis-the-d...

oneeyedpigeon 13y ago

PHP developers and say, Ruby or Python developers are generally rather different types of people Any competent developer can switch languages, especially between very similar languages like PHP/Python/Ruby Those two statements are contradictory. My own stance is that it's rude to stereotype anyone as a 'PHP developer' and infer that, in some way, that means they're 'different' from a Ruby developer.

nbouscal 13y ago
They're not contradictory at all. People who present themselves as PHP developers tend to have a set of common differences from people who present themselves as Ruby or Python developers. That doesn't mean that the competent among both groups are incapable of quickly switching languages. It might mean that the percentage of competent developers is different between the two groups. It's basically the Dead Sea Effect[1], but with languages. Generally better developers will want to use better languages. That shouldn't be surprising. Hopefully we don't have to rehash the argument about the fact that some languages are better than others, since we're on HN and pg has covered that point in great depth. [1] http://brucefwebster.com/2008/04/11/the-wetware-crisis-the-dead-sea-effect/ http://brucefwebster.com/2008/04/11/the-wetware-crisis-the-d...