When visitors hit the php.net homepage, they are greeted with:
"PHP is a popular general-purpose scripting language that is especially
suited to web development.
Fast, flexible and pragmatic, PHP powers everything from your blog to
the most popular websites in the world."
While the statements are true, it is missing one of the core features of
PHP: The command-line. PHP is incredibly useful as a scripting
language for the command-line too. It isn't just for web servers. All
of my cron scripts are PHP scripts. When I need to do some
quick-n-dirty processing of some data, PHP running from a command-line
is my go-to weapon of choice. And, of course, PHP powers my websites.
One language to rule them all and so on.
Ever since I figured out PHP ran on the command-line years ago, I more
or less stopped developing compiled command-line apps. I rarely need to
fire up Visual C++ these days because I can more write a PHP script and
run it from the command-line in a fraction of the time. (I was a C++
addict.)
Most people seem to write Python, Go, or Perl (and sometimes Bash)
scripts for the command-line because they failed to realize that PHP is
just as useful, if not more so, because they think "PHP is web only" and
they "don't want a web application". I used to be in the same boat.
Then I found the PHP command-line boat and kissed the other
barnacle-laden boat goodbye.
I digress.
In my world, PHP is equally suited for command-line development as it is
for web development...I happen to do a *lot* of both.
Just something to consider - the tagline on the homepage might be
keeping PHP from being even bigger than it is already.
--
Thomas Hruska
CubicleSoft President
I've got great, time saving software that you will find useful.
http://cubiclesoft.com/
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