2007/2/22, Russ Brown <pickscrape@xxxxxxxxx>:
Ron Johnson wrote: > -----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- > Hash: SHA1 > > My definition is, "toy used/trumpeted by pseudo-professionals as a > professional tool, when it just doesn't measure up". > /me Tries really hard to resist responding /me Fails I'm sorry, but having just been described as a 'pseudo-professional' I simply have to defend myself, and my colleagues. I don't want to start a language war here, and this is the last post that I will make on this subject, but it's perfectly possible to criticise pretty much any programming language out there with a whole raft of reasons as to why it's not a good language to use professionally. Take perl for example. I have still yet to see readable Perl code. Unless you're very careful C lets you write code that leaks or overwrites memory left right and centre with all kinds of security flaws possible as a result. I could go on with other languages but I think you get my point. There is however a point in saying that while PHP does have its numerous inconsistencies and oddities, it is *perfectly* possible to write good quality, well performing, maintainable, clean and well designed code in PHP. Without blowing my own trumpet, I and my colleagues do it every day, and we work very hard at it too. Oh yes, we've seen plenty of bad code, but that's the skill of a good developer (to spot the bad code) and the challenge of a professional one (taking the care to deal with the bad code rather than just leaving it be). You just have to be more careful in PHP not to fall into the traps (that a good developer knows about), which is exactly like a C developer knowing how not to introduce buffer overruns etc.
I think you made a very good point and I want to second it. Although I have been a Python enthusiast for some years and today I do all new developments with Python, I have written somethings with PHP (and ASP) which were very succesfull. Indeed when I have to install sofware I look at the final product not at the language in which it was written. As an example I have installed Mediawiki (php) in instead of Moinmoin (python) because Mediawiki is years ahead of Moinmoin. Regards, -- Clodoaldo Pinto Neto
