[jstewartmobile]

As someone who uses both Go and PHP, I think they're separate use cases.

The up-side to PHP is that it is super-flexible. The down-side to PHP is that it is super-flexible. You can work fast with it, which also allows you to be extremely sloppy with it. The programmer has to wield all the discipline, because the language sure isn't going to help.

The up-side to Go is that Rob Pike is older, wiser, and learned all of the mistakes of C and C++. Rather than have it be all things to all people, he made some very opinionated design choices with crystal-clear trade-offs. More code will have to be written. It will be in an imperative style. Errors will need to be handled explicitly rather than through a catch-all exception. Elbow grease! Elbow-grease that results in more robust code that is easier to understand and reason about.

So, why PHP? Sometimes quick and workable is preferable to slow and great.