[PommeDeTerre]

Professional software developers who care about creating secure and maintainable applications that perform well will, by necessity, be very hesitant to use or recommend the use of PHP.

It has a very poor track record when it comes to security flaws, for example. It is also rife with inconsistencies and unjustifiable oddities throughout the language itself, and its standard library. Factors like those then promote the development of software that is of an unacceptable quality.

There do happen to be many extremely experienced software developers here at HN, and we won't hesitate to point out the flaws with various technologies, including PHP. This is not a bad thing; it's quite good. It's extremely important to be vocal about low-quality technologies.

These days, there are just so many alternatives that are far superior to PHP in every respect. Even with its new features, PHP is still not an acceptable option. So we shouldn't be looking for positives where there just aren't any, nor should we be surprised when all we find are negatives.

[maratd]

> Professional software developers who care about creating secure and maintainable applications that perform well will, by necessity, be very hesitant to use or recommend the use of PHP.

Nonsense. As the most widely deployed platform it has absolutely massive exposure and security flaws are fixed quickly.

Don't confuse poor practices by newbies with platform security and stability.

> It has a very poor track record when it comes to security flaws, for example.

It does not.

> It is also rife with inconsistencies and unjustifiable oddities throughout the language itself

Every language has its warts. What's your point?

> These days, there are just so many alternatives that are far superior to PHP in every respect.

Yeah. Don't blame the tool. Blame the craftsman. And a craftsman who spends quite a bit of time complaining about the tools others use ... well ... you can fill in the rest.