Is PHP dead? Chill, PHP Is Not Going Anywhere
Is php dead?
Is PHP dead? People have started asking this question. Almost every passing day subjects me to a lot of content on Quora and many other forums where people have considered PHP a dead language. It is often looked down on by new programmers and developers simply because of the already existing negativity it has.
You will often see on the internet talks of how people are moving away from PHP or some XYZ service or have migrated their stack to Python or Node. They leave no stone unturned in convincing themselves and everyone around about how PHP sucks and you should stay away from it.
The Reason
Well, it is happening but not because PHP is a bad language, but simply because those languages or frameworks are better suited for those apps. This actually reminds me of a quote from Mark Twain – ” The reports of my death have been greatly exaggerated.”
PHP is used by 75% of the websites on the internet. That is a staggering 3 out of 4 sites. It has been around for over 20 years and there is a PHP library for almost every requirement of yours. The amount of people already working brings in a large community and it rarely happens that you won’t find a solution to your problem. There are always people who wouldn’t like it for some reason or the other, but my problem is these people brainwashing the new folks.
The other Languages
I have tried a couple of languages for web development and even most developers that I know, often tell me that PHP is the easiest to get things running. You could create a prototype with PHP in exponentially lesser time than you would with any other language. Also, when we talk about Python or Node we are actually talking about using frameworks like a flask, Django or Express. But the thing with PHP is that it runs without the need for a framework. Just write your code and it runs.
Practical Performance
You have an ocean full of frameworks available when working with PHP. I just don’t understand the idea that PHP is dying. Almost every CMS is using PHP with absolutely no signs of moving on. There have been several fake news saying that WordPress is migrating to Node but it was just a rumor. I think other frameworks and languages are great for specific purposes but it cannot be ignored that most of the work is being done in PHP. The recent 7.X versions of PHP have brought in major performance upgrades and several performance tests have shown PHP to beat other languages by a considerable margin.
Sure PHP is no perfect language, there is N number of issues with it, but you cannot ignore the fact that at the end of the day PHP gets shit done. Another quote comes to my mind from the man who created C++ it goes like this “There are only two kinds of languages: the ones people complain about and the ones nobody uses.”
So I guess we very well know where PHP falls and anyways the language was designed for one job – To make websites and in my opinion, it does a fantastic job by giving us the necessary tools like sessions, cookies, request variables, etc without the need for any external implementation. So these were some of my views from what I have seen and the developers that I have spoken to. Feel free to add to this topic by posting a valuable comment below. If there is any way I could be of help, just drop a comment and I will be there for you.
