PHP Sucks, But It Doesn’t Matter: Jeff Atwood essentially closes the “PHP sucks” argument by agreeing with it, then explaining why it doesn’t matter.
The TIOBE community index I linked above? It’s written in PHP. Wikipedia, which is likely to be on the first page of anything you search for these days? Written in PHP. Digg, the social bookmarking service so wildly popular that a front page link can crush the beefiest of webservers? Written in PHP. WordPress, arguably the most popular blogging solution available at the moment? Written in PHP. YouTube, the most widely known video sharing site on the internet? Written in PHP. Facebook, the current billion-dollar zombie-poking social networking darling of venture capitalists everywhere? Written in PHP.
Notice a pattern here?
Some of the largest sites on the internet – sites you probably interact with on a daily basis – are written in PHP. If PHP sucks so profoundly, why is it powering so much of the internet?
The only conclusion I can draw is that building a compelling application is far more important than choice of language. While PHP wouldn’t be my choice, and if pressed, I might argue that it should never be the choice for any rational human being sitting in front of a computer, I can’t argue with the results.
I’m actually beginning to like ASP.Net, but you have to wonder why very few of the big sites – on the scale that Jeff mentions above – are written in it. ASP.Net owns the enterprise, but I don’t see any of the Web 2.0 darlings rushing to it.
Say whatever you want about PHP, but it’s easy to do stuff in. Yes, it’s easy to do stupid stuff, but it’s easy to do about everything else in as well.
ASP.Net is Jacqueline Kennedy, while PHP is Marilyn Monroe. Sure, you couldn’t take Marilyn to a state dinner, but she was probably a hell of a lot more fun in general.