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Discussion on: Underestimated PHP

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twirp profile image
twirp

I don't think PHP is dying, but I do think some languages excel in use cases compared to others. I started with PHP4 and used it up until PHP7. My problems and scenarios grew to where other languages supported what I needed to do natively, while PHP felt like a hack or workaround.

PHP and its frameworks are constantly playing catchup. Native Call (FFI) was added in PHP 7.4, Fibers were adding in 8.1, in memory storage was added in PHP 7, threads in PHP cannot be used with a web server, there's no real good solution for web sockets. Most of the time PHP is associated with Shared Hosting, where you don't have the ability to perform complex tasks or bind to ports.

Laravel is a step in the right direction, but there's limitations in Shared Hosting environments where vanilla PHP excels.

Once you step away from Shared Hosting, the argument for PHP is harder to make. For developers who grew up with PHP's initial limitations, a new and improved PHP release isn't enough to convince people to switch back. Constantly playing catchup and knowing limitations are present provide enough reasons to stick to something else for most people.

At the end of the day, it's personal preference.

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dyriavin profile image
Alexander Dyriavin

Fully agreed, looking at the features and progress around PHP - i dont see its dying, i see how the language becomes better with each feature and release