I've been hearing a lot of negative things about PHP lately, claiming it's obsolete or outdated. I used PHP a few years ago, but I'm out of the loop. Are there any reasons or opinions that support using PHP for new or smaller projects? What makes it stand out against other programming languages?
4 Answers
I've seen PHP drop in reputation due to its past reputation and issues with WordPress, but it's still widely used. It’s one of the easiest back-end languages to host, making it perfect for beginners. Install a LAMP or LEMP stack on your laptop, and you can start building immediately. If you're building simple or hobby projects, PHP can be your best friend!
The biggest flaw was probably the complexity many had to deal with in the older codebases.
A lot of PHP's hate comes from its earlier versions. Modern PHP (especially PHP 7 and later) is fast and has great type safety. Laravel is a fantastic framework for building applications quickly, and its community is super supportive. It's definitely worth considering for new projects, especially if you're looking for something simple and effective.
I get that, but aren't there other languages that also handle web tasks just as well?
Absolutely, especially if you want to use React or Vue. Laravel works seamlessly with them for a great development experience!
PHP's greatest strength is its ease of use and community around it. With a simple deployment process, it allows rapid development with frameworks like Laravel. Although many languages have competed over the years, PHP remains a solid choice for web applications, largely due to its long-standing support on hosting platforms and its continued evolution. The community keeps things lively, especially as they continue to improve the language!
True, but aren't there other options out there with better community support?
Not necessarily; the PHP community is quite active and helpful. Just depends on where you're looking!
PHP is specifically designed for web development, and it has been improved over the years. It allows you to do a ton of server-side tasks with minimal code and dependencies, which is pretty impressive. Plus, deploying on the LAMP stack is super easy since it's usually pre-installed on Linux servers. You can host an entire eCommerce site on a cheap VPS without major hassles. The online resources for PHP are vast, so you'll rarely get stuck while working on projects.
That sounds great, but are there any updates on PDF generation features without using extra libraries? I'd love to know more about that!
Yeah, PHP's flexibility and low hosting costs are definitely significant advantages. It really does run fine on cheaper servers!
What were the main issues with PHP 5.x, if I may ask?