I don’t know if it’s due to over-exposure to programming memes but I certainly believed that no one was starting new PHP projects in 2023 (or 2020, or 2018, or 2012…). I was under the impression we only still discussed it at all because WordPress is still around.
Would a PHP evangelist like to disabuse me of my notions and make an argument for using PHP for projects such as Kbin in this day and age?
It’s written using Symphony framework and seems to be using the latest best practice. Nothing to worry about here. PHP has its warts, which are being addressed since PHP 7.x. Modern frameworks like Symphony go even further by encouraging best practices when developing PHP WebApps, unlike the dark old days of PHP WebApps full of SQL injections and XSS issues (still is though in the WordPress plugins ecosystem).
I’m mostly a Python guy and used to look down on PHP, but changed my tune since the release of PHP 7.x. If Python has JIT half as good as PHP these days, I would die happy.
There’s still lots of problems with php like the type system exists now, but doesn’t let you put types on containers (arrays, hashmaps etc) so you still can’t use the type system to model your app in a way that invalid states throw compiler errors. And it’s certainly not ever going to be an algebraic type system. Nothing past the basics make it into php.
They’re trailing behind in every way. Have you ever looked at a php feature and went “oh god, I want that!”?
I don’t use PHP enough to comment about its type system, but at the very least it’s no longer a horrible language anymore. If for some reason you are forced to use PHP to greenfield a new project, at least you don’t have to worry too much about basic stuff anymore.
If there is one PHP feature I absolutely want, it’s the blazing fast JIT which put other interpreted languages to shame.