Anthony's comments on my last post reminded me of an issue I feel PHP is
facing today.
PHP is a wonderfully messy language. You can use PHP to insert a small
bit of customization in an otherwise flat website. Something as simple
as saying "Good morning", "Good afternoon", and "Good evening" at the
top of a welcome page. Adding a small hit counter.
This usage allows for everyone to customize their own websites - which
is one of the great strengths of the open source community - the idea
that we empower the end users to do whatever they want for themselves.
It allows for a gentle learning curve, where you can go from little bits
of PHP to a complex set of conditions and actions on a single PHP page,
and then on to seperating code out into libraries of common functions
but still single pages, and finally to frameworks and obtuse programs
such as
=====
<?php
$app = Factory::getApplication();
$app->execute();
======
Maybe it is just me, but I see more and more a focus on obtuse
programming. It is seen as "professional" and "secure"....and
incidentally programmers can charge a lot more money when the programs
are so complex that the end user can't make their own modifications
anymore.
When I first started out with PHP over 20 years ago, I found it to be an
open community of people passing on hints and help - very open with
their help and supportive of new coders.
Contrasting that with Python and Rails, I found them to be greedy
communities, where everyone is a "professional" and "available for
consultation".
Now....I'm not so sure. It seems to me that PHP is becoming more
"professional". Am I alone in this?
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