[rafark]

It’s the same thing with php. I would say it’s probably because they are languages from the 90s, but then you have python and JavaScript which are from the same era too and people never question their relevance or “modernity”. All of these languages (even java) have been in constant development since then and all of them have modern features. Why are some considered modern and some outdated when they are all basically from the same era?

A truly modern language is Rust.

[doublerabbit]

PHP typically required a web-server, system administration which is old fashioned. No one wants to do that which is fine as it keeps me employed.

When Ruby made western presence it was clunky. No one knew what it was and it got stuck with that personality. It had an ecosystem too but never hooked in to the western world.

Java is tainted by Oracle and seen as "business".

And it's also weird how Postgres has made an uprising appearance. It was sitting duck back in the 00's. I knew it existed because as an script kiddie I could install a php forum and select it as a database backend but I never did.

Want to make a LCD display? You can simply by slapping a python library in to your code.

Ecosystems pull coders in. Thinking about it, it's probably why Perl was popular before with CPAN.

The old net was special but skills had to be learnt. Remember the days when you had one server for one service?

The new net is terrible but everything is handed to you on a golden plate.

[citrin_ru]

> PHP typically required a web-server, system administration which is old fashioned

IMHO deploying PHP to production is easier than Ruby/Python. You need a web-server but once it's configured (not a rocket science) you just copy all .php files. For ruby you also want to have a web-server (e. g. nginx) unless the load is negligible. If you want to deploy a project with all dependencies you probably need something like rvm but some gems would be easier to install form OS packages (like pg or other wrappers around C/C++ libraries installed from OS packages too). And then for ruby you need an additional daemon (HTTP) which will be restarted on updates (and auto-restarted if it will crash).

[voidfunc]

Postgres didn't really become the darling of SQL databases until rather recently.. i'd say the last 5-10 years. It was a clunky DB back in the day compared to MySQL.

[UK-AL]

It was clunky because it actually enforced rules.

[sunrunner]

> When Ruby made western presence it was clunky.

At least when I first encountered Ruby it felt somewhat cool and exotic, I think because of a combination of its friendly website (compared to say Java), Japanese origin, and the fact that some of the first Ruby I ever learned was from why's (poignant) Guide to Ruby.

[AlienRobot]

How is it possible that we have this many programming languages and every single one is worse than the other?

[sunrunner]

Perhaps because:

"There are only two kinds of languages: the ones people complain about and the ones nobody uses" -- Bjarne Stroustrup

[throwawayoldie]

My theory is that this world is actually some other world's hell.

[mrits]

By western world do you mean California? Because in Austin rails was huge and I was a lonely Django fan

[pxc]

> A truly modern language is Rust.

Don't recent PHP releases actually have a pretty good selection of nice, modern features? Union types, JIT compiler, pattern matching against types, nullsafe operator, gradual typing, etc. It seems like FP style is better and better supported with each new release, which is another hallmark of modern languages like Rust.

If you're stuck on some cursed, barely-maintained PHP 6 legacy codebase, you can't enjoy these things, but when it comes to choosing PHP for new projects it seems like it's more modern than its reputation.