What language do you like to code in? Really? That's great. Now shut up and go code in it.
What difference does it make to you that I use PHP, Ruby or original ASP?
My website achieves the result I desire. I chose the programming language I use because of reasons that made sense to me and my project, not because I want the approval of a bunch of hipster start-up kids.
Fabien, though I sometimes disagree with his technical choices, is one of the brightest stars in PHP right now and he's just putting forward a somewhat modest defense of PHP.
I would have more sympathy if it were clearly evident that serious bugs were taken seriously rather than being ignored for a decade
You can't be satisfied
I've been working with PHP for ~8 years, having it as my main source for income, and I'm /still/ finding new and interesting things to hate about it on an almost daily basis. I wish I could go and code in a better language, but that's not an option, because cheap shared hosts don't support any better language, because of people like you keeping the PHP ecosystem limping on.
PHP is like javascript: I use it not because it's good, but because it's what's available.
People can bitch about PHP as much as they like, but my project for today is hosted on a server running PHP 5.2.4. I don't even have shell access; only FTP.
The way I see it, is if the final item is as you've envisioned it, what difference does it make what it's written in?
Tell me you believe that after you've both maintained a project for years as it evolves and had to hire a team to maintain and extend it.
And done this multiple times with different languages.
Damn, the language ecosystem and surrounding community are in the top 3 things that matter most.
I don't know if PHP is in a particularly bad shape nowadays, since I haven't touched it since 2005, but I do know that tools are just as important as the end result.