[saluki]

Speed of PHP 7 is much improved, it's way faster than 5, and fast enough for any app (Facebook runs on a flavor of PHP)

I use the Laravel Framework on PHP 7, Laravel makes PHP nice to work with. Laravel is as enjoyable as Rails, sure you miss Ruby but Laravel keeps development fun. If you are doing a project in PHP use Laravel.

I use forge.laravel.com to spin up servers and do deployments. It saves a ton of time and is definitely worth it. You could use it for any PHP project not just Laravel. There is also envoyer for zero downtime deployments. You setup Forge to pull code from from your Github/Bitbucket.

Forge is really amazing you can register a new domain, create a new Laravel project, and have it live on the web in 10 minutes. You can also add Lets Encrypt SSL certs right from the forge dashboard. Same for setting up an existing project from scratch it's fast to create a new droplet for an existing project.

If you are using Laravel I would recommend updating your apps as new versions of Laravel are released. Each update is pretty painless but if you wait to update doing them all at one time to get to the latest version can take some time.

There are lots of great time saving Laravel packages out there most require you to keep Laravel close to the latest release so it's worth staying up to date for the packages. Plus each release of Laravel always has nice additions to the framework.

[swaggyBoatswain]

Do you use frontend frameworks like React or Vue with laravel/PHP?

I'm still debating what my 2nd backend language for webdevelopment should be (besides NodeJS). Rails is highly opinionated, activeORM is amazing, has rails API mode, but it lacks native async support, and has a weird way of doing things. A lot of magic behind the scenes.

I only learned enough to know how powerful it is, and it's paradigm. I think everyone should learn it. Abstracting away rails to sinatra I've been told is painful, and I've never heard of anyone building websites with pure ruby

PHP seems appealing to me b/c it couples well with Vue, PUG (html templating). I have heard doing things other than the rails way is a nightmare, but I don't know how it is with laravel.

PHP also b/c of wordpress. I still find it superior to any alternatives (Jekyll, hugo, gatsby, etc) because of the rich plugin ecosystem, proven ground, and ability to own your comments (and not have middleware like disqus)

Rails doesn't really work with windows OS either, and I primarily use a windows machine too.

The other downside of PHP is that it's frowned upon due to developers dislike for legacy PHP codebases.

How well does PHP work as a REST API? Is Laravel highly opinionated or are there many ways of doing things inside the framework? Does PHP have native async support? I could probably look these up but I'm curious to know what your opinions are.

[saluki]

I created one Laravel app with React. I use vue now. Although I'm not completely sold on using Vue(or React) for the front end.

For most Apps I still build them as a traditional web app with just enough javascript/jQuery on the front end as needed.

Granted Vue is really nice, I'm sure I'll move over to using it more.

Laravel feels similar to the Rails way.

The developer of Vue works closely with the Laravel community so there is great compatibility there.

Checkout the Laracon talks Evan speaks at Laravel Conferences.

Laracasts.com is similar to Railscast.com and a great place to learn Laravel. There are some free classes to get you started.

WordPress, y I still maintain some WordPress sites, I don't enjoy it but it's the easiest way to setup a blog/content site. I have some Laravel apps that are setup to connect to the WordPress database, it works well it's easy to setup objects in Laravel to interact with Posts, Comments, Reviews, etc. This is mainly for dashboards, batch editing of comments for VAs, etc.

As far as windows, I switched to OSX when I was learning Rails. I was always having problems with Rails tutorials and would spend 10s of hours on windows workarounds.

Using windows for Laravel is a little easier. Like Rails most of the tutorials, developers use OSX. I would recommend using a mac for development. It's just easier more productive.

Even the entry point macbook air is more than capable for Laravel or Rails development.

If you need one you could probably pick up a last gen macbook air on sale (new ones just came out and are $1199) I've seen them as low as $649 but have been on sale for $799 pretty often.

Laravel works well as a rest API it is setup for api routes out of the box. There are lots of tutorials for using Laravel as the backend and interacting with vue through an api.

Native Async support included: https://laracasts.com/series/learn-laravel-mix/episodes/9

[swaggyBoatswain]

I owned a 2015 macbook pro, but I am a long time windows user, and I have a decked out gaming desktop rig.

I'll have to play around with laravel / php / vue more to see what I like. NodeJS is great and all, but it's not opinionated with it's frameworks. Too many ways of doing things. I want to build shitty prototypes quickly with a slow moving but well established framework

I like rails because it has a singular mindset. I'll have to give laravel a try.

[saluki]

Gaming rig? PUBG?

[swaggyBoatswain]

Was playing alot of battle royales, but lately I've been playing destiny2 and soul calibur