I don’t know if it’s due to over-exposure to programming memes but I certainly believed that no one was starting new PHP projects in 2023 (or 2020, or 2018, or 2012…). I was under the impression we only still discussed it at all because WordPress is still around.

Would a PHP evangelist like to disabuse me of my notions and make an argument for using PHP for projects such as Kbin in this day and age?

  • I see a lot of people quick to hate on PHP while not really knowing anything about it’s modern usage… but the thing I think of most is how people praise Lemmy for using Rust and diss Kbin for using PHP, but at the end of the day it’s HOW those tools are used that determines the quality of something. Language changes, but fundamentals stay the same, and in the end all anyone should care about is whether or not something works.

    Programming language wars have always seemed a tad shallow to me.

    • This is absolutely the truth. Ruby (Mastodon) and PHP are far more than enough to get the job done, and being good at your job (building a product) is more important than using the latest or greatest tools.

      That said, these examples often have great existing products and communities keeping them in the conversation. OCaml is good enough for Jane Street but that doesn’t mean it’s the best or go choice. Such wars or discussions are definitely shallow when focused exclusively on the syntax and semantics