The API is what it is, but the real biggest problem with PHP is also it's biggest feature: it's got the lowest barrier to entry of any server-side language.

The result is that a lot of PHP is awful, cargo-cult stuff glued together by people who have no idea what they are doing.

It's possible for talented developers to create really good programs in PHP, but I don't see how a new language is going to solve the essential problem. People who don't really know how to program and just want to accomplish some simple goal are going to use whatever language is the quickest means to their ends.

Copy/paste spaghetti is a nightmare to maintain in any language. And the people creating it are the same people who are /not/ going to read Atwoods post, don't understand very much about how programming works in general, and will continue to create cruddy programs no matter what language it is written in.