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Most people, really?

• chx 11y ago
  Yes. HN is a bubble. There are ~700 PHP questions on SO a day and ~150 node.js. This is just one pair of numbers, you can mine your own whatever you like but you'll realize there are massive amounts of "web developers" with a ... low amount knowledge.
  • adamors 11y ago
    Thinking most web developers are still shipping PHP 5.3 apps on shared hosts is also a very outdated view.
    • kijin 11y ago
      The latest version of WordPress is still compatible with PHP 5.2.4 and above, so anyone who builds a WordPress site is effectively shipping a PHP 5.2 app.
      • spdionis 11y ago
        They do recommend php 5.4 though, and afaik they do try to push the community to upgrading.
        • kijin 11y ago
          It still means they can't depend on any feature introduced in PHP 5.3 or later. No closures, no namespaces. Ditto for any theme or plugin that tries to be compatible with all versions of PHP that WordPress itself supports.
    • greghinch 11y ago
      Globally, it's not.
    • _lce0 11y ago
      While I do agree with you, I want to make a distinction between shipping and building an application. IMHO the term "developer" should not be applied to those that can just ship but rather those who can also build. It doesn't matter if they are web, desktop, nor low-systems developer actually Most auto-called web developers are just "web masters"
      • kijin 11y ago
        Now you're just redefining "developer". No True Scotsman puts sugar on his porridge, and No True Developer just installs WordPress. On the other hand, even Rails and Django encourage you to use the ORM whenever possible, so even a "developer" who builds apps on a modern framework is unlikely to be familiar with advanced SQL features.
        • ectoplasm 11y ago
          For me, if you had to write even a single line of a Turing complete language to a file (so shell scripts yes, but one-time shell commands no) to install WP, that would count as development. Otherwise, it's just installation. Note: I have never installed WP. Do people really consider ./configure && make && make install and its equivalents to be development now?
          • _lce0 11y ago
            Not really. Most web developers are scare of using the cli. Last time I checked the WP install process was something like... 1. download zip, extract 2. change your some config file 3. upload whole folder using FTP 4. go to /install or something, and from there.. 5. click, click, click, edit text, click, click, click ... That was only if the web developer was in hardcore mode, otherwise it was just _log into cpanel to use one-click installer_