PHP in 2023 • Hacker News Board

Re: PHP in 2023

#11

Post by bluetomcat » Tue, Jan 17, 2023, 11:11 AM UTC

dmitriid wrote: post #2

I used PHP in mid-2000s, and then again in ~2017. By 2017, with the power of IDEA/WebStorm at my hands, it felt pretty much like developing a Java or a C# application: the stuff you needed was there, at your fingertips. And I still prefer PHP docs over pretty much any other language doc.

As of PHP 5, it lost its way and started imitating the Java OO model with a worse botched-on syntax. PHP 4 used to be a compact "hypertext preprocessor" with many built-in groups of functions, enabling you to process forms, talk to databases or process images without much code.

Re: PHP in 2023

#12

Post by shaicoleman » Tue, Jan 17, 2023, 11:18 AM UTC

It's been 10 years since "PHP: a fractal of bad design" [1] was written.

It's remarkable how the language evolved, and how many of the issues mentioned have been fixed and improved over the last ten years.

1. https://eev.ee/blog/2012/04/09/php-a-fractal-of-bad-design/

Re: PHP in 2023

#13

Post by rukuu001 » Tue, Jan 17, 2023, 11:19 AM UTC

I used to describe PHP as the spac filler of the web, holding all the good stuff together.

Then I had to pick up a Laravel project and - for me - Laravel alone has resuscitated PHP's reputation.

Re: PHP in 2023

#14

Post by rawoke083600 » Tue, Jan 17, 2023, 11:27 AM UTC

I love PHP - although it probably only account for about 1/3 of my workload/project.

Would love to see a loose-goosey-functional-lisp-like lang of php :)

Re: PHP in 2023

#15

Post by vistu » Tue, Jan 17, 2023, 11:28 AM UTC

rukuu001 wrote: post #13

I used to describe PHP as the spac filler of the web, holding all the good stuff together. Then I had to pick up a Laravel project and - for me - Laravel alone has resuscitated PHP's reputation.

Absolutely, writing modern PHP with Laravel as a framework makes the whole language feel totally different compared to just even a few years ago. I do also really like the statelessness of how PHP is ran. At the day job we are using it to serve tens of millions of API's a day, without having any issues concerning stability and/or scalability.

Re: PHP in 2023

#16

Post by ceejayoz » Tue, Jan 17, 2023, 11:28 AM UTC

bluetomcat wrote: post #11

dmitriid wrote: post #2

I used PHP in mid-2000s, and then again in ~2017. By 2017, with the power of IDEA/WebStorm at my hands, it felt pretty much like developing a Java or a C# application: the stuff you needed was there, at your fingertips. And I still prefer PHP docs over pretty much any other language doc.

As of PHP 5, it lost its way and started imitating the Java OO model with a worse botched-on syntax. PHP 4 used to be a compact "hypertext preprocessor" with many built-in groups of functions, enabling you to process forms, talk to databases or process images without much code.

Those functions are all still there. You can still do if you like.

Re: PHP in 2023

#17

Post by esskay » Tue, Jan 17, 2023, 11:28 AM UTC

Wulfheart wrote: post #4

[dead]

Not sure he 'forgot'. People dont tend to do that kind of thing in PHP as honestly it's totally unnecessary.

Re: PHP in 2023

#18

Post by brentroose » Tue, Jan 17, 2023, 11:29 AM UTC

aurbano wrote: post #9

PHP was my first language back when I was a teenager in highschool - it all started because I wanted to get some data from users and store it (I just knew basic HTML and CSS back then), when a friend mentioned he used a PHP snippet to send an email from a website. That sounded like magic to me so I bought a book on PHP and my mind was blown by the possibilities. Several websites and years later I had a pretty good un…

Hey, I'm the author of the post. A while ago I made a video where I built a small but serious hobby project in PHP with Laravel. It was a five hour recording, but I condensed it into a commentated 20-minutes timelapse: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mmtVkDh9RGw

If you don't have the time to watch it, you can also check out the open source code of that project: https://github.com/brendt/aggregate.stitcher.io

I still work on it, and I'd say i's a pretty accurate representation of a standard Laravel application.

Re: PHP in 2023

#19

Post by brentroose » Tue, Jan 17, 2023, 11:30 AM UTC

bluenose69 wrote: post #8

The video from that site (also https://youtu.be/x9bSUo6TGgY at youtube) is really quite well done. I wish more language comparisons were done in this way, with two speedy minutes in an editor accompanied by taut voiceover. Very impresssive!

Thanks! I'm the author of the post and creator of the video :) Appreciate the kind words.

Re: PHP in 2023

#20

Post by esskay » Tue, Jan 17, 2023, 11:30 AM UTC

lemper wrote: post #3

used php in 2015, decided that it's not that nice. last couple of months, I've been banging my head with php7. granted, it's a legacy project, but it is still the same php 7-8 years ago.

If you're inherited a legacy project thats a mess then the chances are it was written by some ass who's not following the languages generally accepted PSR standards. Proper PHP code is extremely easy to dive into and maintain.

The benefit and downside of the PSR standards is they are optional. Sadly some think they know better and opt to roll their own convoluted 'standards' that just end up creating hell for the next person to come along and have to maintain their mess.