[jeroenhd]

The PHP standard library has issues for sure (shout-out to real_escape_string), but so do Python and JS (I can't speak for Ruby as I've never used it). JS's "hide everything behind a few magical objects" (Math, window, document, etc.) approach isn't much better in my opinion. Python is a bit better, but mostly because Python 3 was a clean break from Python 2.

I find the biggest argument for or against PHP in the context of these languages to be "I find dollar signs aestethically (dis)pleasing". It's a perfectly valid preference to have, but people talk about PHP like they're still porting Wordpress plugins to PHP 4.

[jeltz]

I do not care at all about the dollar sign, but I have worked both in PHP 4 and in modern PHP and I do not think the language has improved much. Other than Composer the dev experince was basically the same. It is still not up to par with Ruby or Python.