I've been coding for 30 years and I've always considered programming just a means to an end. It's the tool you use to create that vision you have.

I was so happy to see that Rasmus feels exactly the same way. In the video he states that PHP alpha was created as a way to make his life easier to build dynamic websites rather than coding in C CGI.

I started out coding C in CGI and then moved to PERL. When I saw the PHP mail() function I was hooked. It enabled me to send an email with one line of code vs the 30+ it took in C or PERL.

Rasmus states himself, that he expected someone else to create a better competitor to PHP, and in his mind he was only going to use it for another 6 months until that new awesome project was released.

I felt exactly the same way!

But they kept updating PHP just as I was starting to think about new tools. Then Laravel came along and they also improved core performance of PHP.

So, now, PHP and Laravel are an absolutely beautiful (and comfortable) tool to work with and the performance is awesome.

Additionally, Laravel and PHP updates keep flowing freely and I can see no end in site of innovation from the amazing people behind these projects.