I think most people don't really compare PHP to Scala: it is an entirely different language. I think most people who talk down about PHP do so because Python an

I think most people don't really compare PHP to Scala: it is an entirely different language. I think most people who talk down about PHP do so because Python and Ruby are so much easier to understand and use. But then again I'm of the unpopular opinion (having worked professionally in all four) that Perl, PHP, Python, and Ruby should go into a cage, and only one should emerge. The others must write converters that turn their code into working code of the winner's, and we should stop having four languages that are basically all fighting over the same dynamic scripting language mindshare. Imagine if instead of worrying about "keeping up with the Rail's" you could just think about how to actually work on converting those Java/Haskell/Lisp programmers!