With predictable results.
The difference between languages like PHP and more modern languages, is that the more modern languages have more airbags, for the bad code. It's still bad code, but it won't do as much damage.
PHP is likely to be around for a long time: https://w3techs.com/technologies/history_overview/programmin...
So it developed features and functionalities as needed with a very pragmatic focus [0][1]
[0] the most clear example to me is that since functions are not values and cannot be assigned to variables the way to store a function in a variable is to simply assign its name as a string so $callable = "array_map" works. Or that the way to create a pointer to a method is to create a 2 element array of the object and the method name. I like this example because the way method pointers work in JavaScript is objectively worse as the "this" is easily lost. Some languages are built on CS principles and PL theory, others like Bash or PHP are just built to get shit done. I am glad that recent versions are fixing some of the oversight of this approach while keeping the pragmatic culture
[1] I am not sure of how true it is, but some claim that some of the standard functions have irregular names because the interpreter used the name length as hash key
Great metaphor. I might steal it for some model contract terms I'm doing (for an expanded version of my contract-drafting course materials). I'd been thinking of "guardrails," but "airbags" is far better.
People building and creating awesome new things? Increase in happiness and empowerment? More efficient processes and increase in productivity? New businesses being born? Wealth and value being added to society?
I'd have to see the numbers on those ones.
But I am not a "gatekeeper" type, maybe you are confusing me for one. I'm a high school dropout with a GED, and have been staring up people's noses, all my life.
I just believe that any job we do, should be a good job.
Build on a sand foundation, and you'd better not go too high, or Bad Things Happen.
A good friend of mine has founded such a company, and boy, I loathe his code. But at the end of the day, he’s incredibly good at getting something out of the door now, which is working. A language that makes this possible, while still scaling to fully type-safe and optimized bytecode with a JIT compiler if needed is a good one.
For a lot of folks (especially hereabouts), “makes money” is the only valid metric.
That’s not my experience or personal PoV. I’ve been shipping (as opposed to “writing”) code, for over 30 years. Pretty much everything I’ve written, has made it out the door (although not always to subsequent success). I’m fairly familiar with what it takes to ship. I agree that it’s a relatively uncommon skillset, but I’ve also learned to ship stuff with a future. One of the projects I developed, took ten years to come into its own, and it had to stay solid for all that time, until the right team could take it over. The fact that the code is well-written, well-supported, and well-documented, is the main reason that it finally took off.
I don’t like PHP, and one reason, has been alluded in other comments. It’s a sand foundation. Over the years, it has been massively backfilled, and is now pretty damn robust, but the sand foundation is still visible.
But it is a useful tool, if wielded correctly. If used incorrectly, though, that’s another story, and there’s a lot of bad PHP out there.
I have heard a quote, attributed to Stroustrop, that goes “With C, you can shoot yourself in the foot. With C++, you can blow your whole leg off.” I’m skeptical he’s the one that said it, but it’s a truism.
I have a friend that is an arborist (tree guy). He’s really experienced, and really good at it, and makes great money.
Watching him use chainsaws, though, is kinda terrifying. For one thing, every one of his saws has the safety guard removed, and he’ll go monkeying up a tree, with three running chainsaws, hanging off him. He uses them like you’d use a fork at the dinner table, and can take down a huge locust tree, in an hour or so, alone.
He makes it look easy, but I’m not so idiotic, as to think I could emulate him.
We have a running joke, every time he sees me, he holds up his hand, showing that he still has all his fingers, because I told him that he would end up chopping off a finger or two.
There now exists a huge base of very good PHP programmers. It took quite a while to coalesce, but it’s here. I don’t claim to be one of them, but I have used the language to ship some fairly ambitious stuff, for the last quarter century or so, so I can wrangle it reasonably well.
The front end can have very little js and still be fully functional (like this website for example).
Separately, IMO, languages should always be designed with bad programmers in mind - good programmers are going to figure out the right way to do things in any language but bad programmers are going to fire off every foot gun they can find. PHP has made efforts to remove or de-emphasize foot guns and it has evolved into a much safer tool to give someone.
I am, however, pretty against selling crap. If people pay for my work, or even if they don't (most work I do, these days, is free), they have the right to expect that I did good work.
I do run into quite a few folks that write crap, know they write crap, but don't care, and expect people to pay top dollar for their crap.
If that's a "condescending" attitude, then guilty as charged.
(Neutral) PHP news -> PHP bad -> PHP not bad
Even if people didn't actually say "PHP bad"
I just hold my nose, write my backend, then get back to my frontend, as soon as possible.
From what I can see it's some pretty unbiased conclusion that's quite reflective of the truth.