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by samuellevy 4646 days ago
Before this turns into a recanting of the points in the "PHP is a double-clawed hammer" post again, I would like to remind people that PHP still has a place in the business world that nno other language has stepped up to fill.

http://blog.samuellevy.com/post/41-php-is-the-right-tool-for...

Please stop complaining about how horrible PHP is if you don't use it or have. intentions to replace it.

2 comments

I couldn't agree more.

Having worked with clients that publish thousands of articles of content per month the best solution for the job at the end of the day is still WordPress. Have a client that needs an online store? Magento (both of which are built in PHP).

Development shops don't have time to custom build CMS's and eCommerce solution because their clients don't give a shit what language or framework their site is built in.

Show me a CMS built in ruby, python or javascript that comes anywhere near WordPress and I'll gladly switch. Unfortunately it just doesn't exist. Like you said, PHP has its place and until something better comes along stop complaining.

In my experience Spree is better than Magento for most smbs. You are right,however, there is no replacement for WordPress and its ecosystem. Ghost looks interesting, though.
Also, as easy as PHP to deploy. That's a big matter. The "save and reload" workflow, as said in the slides, is really a big point.
I actually feel the same way about "classic" ASP. Yeah, it wasn't pretty. But for simple CRUD pages of the day, it was damn simple and you didn't need ninjas or rockstars to get stuff done.
I remember asp classic. It was the defacto standard for programming on the web, until something better replaced it. That something was PHP.

PHP means access to easy to install, ready to go software, which meets 95% of the needs of small businesses. I would love to see that in python, or anything else, but it simply isn't there. The most widely used python CMS? Plone. It's massive, hard to maintain, and far from easy to install or host.

I've been on and off working on systems like WordPress for pyramid/python for a while, but it's a massive project. One day I might finish it...