Why PHP Sucks (Hint: It doesn't)
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Why PHP Sucks (Hint: It doesn't)
1–10 of 17 posts
Re: Why PHP Sucks (Hint: It doesn't)
#2one thing i learned at art school: having crummy paint and worn brushes doesn't mean you can't produce a great piece of work.
Re: Why PHP Sucks (Hint: It doesn't)
#3> As I’ve programmed in various capacities and looked at hundreds of thousands of lines of code over the years, I’ve never once thought to myself how the task would have been easier if that supposed missing feature were truly there.
I think we've got a Blubber here.
> Ah, reply the nay-sayers, you only think that way because you have never known Feature X and how it could help. To which one must reply: hogwash. [...] If having Feature X really would make my web application development significantly easier, somebody would have already written a language or environment that used it.
Supporting Feature X is one thing; supporting it in a way that makes it worthwhile to use is another.
PHP's anonymous functions are a perfect example.
Re: Why PHP Sucks (Hint: It doesn't)
#4one thing i learned at art school: having crummy paint and worn brushes doesn't mean you can't produce a great piece of work.
Unfortunately some people think that means there's no point in seeking out good brushes and paint. (or worse, that good brushes and paint are an elitist myth)
Re: Why PHP Sucks (Hint: It doesn't)
#5I totally disagree with this essay, but wow is it nicely written.
Re: Why PHP Sucks (Hint: It doesn't)
#6one thing i learned at art school: having crummy paint and worn brushes doesn't mean you can't produce a great piece of work.
Unfortunately some people think that means there's no point in seeking out good brushes and paint. (or worse, that good brushes and paint are an elitist myth)
well put
Re: Why PHP Sucks (Hint: It doesn't)
#7one thing i learned at art school: having crummy paint and worn brushes doesn't mean you can't produce a great piece of work.
but the point is, wouldn't having all the brushes you need and all the colors/paints you need ... aid you create more art ... or just make your life better in anyway
no body said PHP or Java are unusuable, the argument is usually that using Groovy, Perl or Ruby, just make working more interesting fun and rewarding, just like having more brushes and colors as you paint
a great painter can create amazing art with just one color i would argue that an even greater painter can create even more mindblowing art with thousands of colors
i am saying this because many people argue that the sign of a good programmer is one that can write any program using even the most primitive languages
but its still equally impressive to create a program using many differnt design patterns, and complex programming language features ... got me ... it takes a lot of brains to wrap your mind around those advanced feature and use them, and remember to use them
whats the benefit? it depends, but if it only serves boosting the programmer moral and motivate him to create more useful programs then this should be enough for more software vendors who care about hiring motivated employees
Re: Why PHP Sucks (Hint: It doesn't)
#8"The lesson? Shut up and code."
The author's full of it. Though I agree with the idea that not having cool features doesn't make a language suck (though it can certainly make programming in that language less fun), the rest of his stuff is why we have so much terrible code out there.
If you just "shut up and code" you'll rarely get what you wanted as far as functionality goes.
Also highly complex code is usually a sign of a bad programmer, not a good one. Complex code is very rarely necessary to get the job done, and it leads to very high maintenance systems.
Good programmers take great pride in producing things that are simple, as is the case with most artists. The best photographs usually aren't the ones that have everything in them, but rather the ones that have exactly what the photographer needed to say what he/she wanted to say.
Not to place photography on a pedestal, IMO this applies to all of the arts. Sometimes complex is good, but usually it's just clutter.
Re: Why PHP Sucks (Hint: It doesn't)
#9"brutal application of free market supply and demand. If having Feature X really would make my web application development significantly easier, somebody would have already written a language or environment that used it."
I see this kind of thinking applied to a multitude of subjects and it never makes any sense. The market isn't some static thing that has already rendered its final judgement - the competitive landscape is constantly changing and (in this particular example) python or ruby programmers extolling the virtues of their language to PHP programmers and convincing them that it is better is a vital component of python/ruby gaining greater market share.
This type of thinking can be used to discourage absolutely anything that is new - "if its so good, why hasn't someone already done it? If it is not already done, it must therefore suck".
In fact, it reminds of a joke about the conservatism of Canadian VCs: The entrepreneur goes to the VC and pitches his business. Being somewhat conservative, the VC asks him "Well, if your idea is great, why hasn't someone from the Valley already invested in it?"
Re: Why PHP Sucks (Hint: It doesn't)
#10one thing i learned at art school: having crummy paint and worn brushes doesn't mean you can't produce a great piece of work.
Unfortunately some people think that means there's no point in seeking out good brushes and paint. (or worse, that good brushes and paint are an elitist myth)
And others think that painting with their own blood adds to the work because it's so painful. (Speaking from experience, slicing open your arm is much less painful than writing PHP. As for reading the average PHP app, let's just say I'd rather die painfully.)