it's just "yet another c-style/curly brackets scripting language", which isn't hard to learn and especially easy to use and which was and still is heavily used in context of web-development.
why? its very efficient/productive ... which is of special interest for example for smaller fixed-rate projects, mvps and similar use-cases.
even if php has many flaws, it got a few things right and is for example available on nearly every webhoster out there ...
but: don't stop learning programming-languages with php. add for example javascript, but also python, some functional language - no, not haskel, i prefer ocaml - and other languages to your "selection of tools" ... :)
btw. another example ... "everybodys darling" javascript:
compared to javascript php is a pretty decent language ... just search the net on critiques on javascript, and despite that: everybody uses it.
why? because its in every browser / on every system / every mobile-platform etc.
availability/accessibility/... counts more than some academically influenced aesthetic discussions from some "theoretical computer-science point of view" ;))
"25 years of php" - an interesting talk about the background/history from its creator Rasmus Lerdorf
* https://youtu.be/wCZ5TJCBWMg
with a god point during the last 5 mins.
"work on things that matter (to you)"
ps.: imho ... don't waste your time on "vim vs emacs"/"win vs linux"/"python vs php"/... style discussions ... just use both.
use the best of both worlds. in the end this doesn't really matter as long as you get your work done ;))
Why do people bring this up so often in 2020? When you can have a $5/month Linode and install anything you need.
I like PHP a lot, but wouldn't want to use / learn it in a constrained environment of an old-school webhost.
because there are lots of people who have other things to do than "bring up anything" on some cheap "roll-your-own" hosting-platform.
... ever considered TCO !?
they just want some problem solved, and don't care much about the current "trends", "buzzwords" or whatever there is in 2020 which may be of interest for "it-nerds" than "getting things done" and move on with their core-business :)
just my 0.02€
laravel.com
laracasts.com
forge.larvel.com
laravel-livewire.com
Great framework, great community and great suite of tools to make developing fun.
For instance, I have been using Python all my career, but to this day it is a niche language in my country. I also know PHP, Java, and C++ from school and personal projects (guess which I used for school and which for personal projects), and I have considered job offers in the past when Python was extremely unmarketable. One of those times I had to move to another city for nearly a year to avoid switching to another language.
What are your objectives? Why are you learning it? Is PHP your first language? Are you trying to get a job, get general stuff done, or have a specific project in mind? Are you primarily looking at web, text processing, database?
My own thoughts on PHP today is it is a very capable language, and probably as worthy of learning as Python, Ruby, or any of the other mainstream scripting languages - again depends what your objectives are.
In other words - how long is a piece of string? ;)