Well, thank you for that positive response. We can certainly disagree with things and still be friends. I'm grateful for that message.
I would agree that Codeigniter is still popular. The reason why it's popular is because it is still used by a large number of developers from places like India and the Phillipines. My declaration is made on good authority. I had, at one time, about 250 videos on my YouTube channel, covering Codeigniter. Indeed, for a while, my YouTube channel was almost exclusively Codeigniter training. I have access to the demographics (all provided by YouTube) and there's no question that Codeigniter is still being used by lots of developers. I've studied the demographics. I think I'm clear about where those developers come from and my information is good. I also, for a while, ran an online club that had around 5,000 members - almost all of whom were Codeigniter developers. So, I'm aware of the demographics and I feel as if I'm intimately familiar with the framework - at least, up until the point where the BC Tech Institute had their takeoever.
The question is, 'Why are they still using it?'.
This takes us into the realms of speculation ...but let's speculate anyway!
I think the reason why Codeigniter has enjoyed a large user base from places like India is because it's the most unchanged of all of the major PHP frameworks. Whilst all of the other frameworks were being rewritten constantly, versions one to three of Codeigniter were all remarkably similar. That rock solid stability, combined with great documentation and simplicity, surely has made Codeigniter an attractive framework for developers who come from countries where the primary language is not English.
So, we agree on something. It's popular.
However, I think it would be delusional to assume that the management of Codeigniter - post Ellislab - is the reason why those developers have stuck around. There's really not a shred of evidence to support that - if such a proposition was ever to be put forth.
Now, IF my recent experiences with CI3's faults are typical then it's possible that there may well be a large number of developers who - right now - are suffering and having their ability to earn damaged because of the state of Codeigniter. I say nothing about CI4. I'm talking about CI3. Please do keep that in mind.
Personally speaking, I think that the plight of those developers deserves to be taken seriously.
If people out there are using Codeigniter as a means of putting food on the table, isn't it reasonable to at least take those people (be they clients or developers) seriously?
Based on the initial response that I've received above, Codeigniter is being run by a bunch of part-timers (not my words) and indeed, all blame for the demise of Codeigniter lies squarely on the shoulders of the community. One the one hand, the user credits one person with the near singlehanded creation of CI4 and on the other hand the user proudly proclaims that it's a community driven project. I assume I'm among intelligent people and you don't need me to point out the obvious.
Most interestingly of all, my responder appears to think it's madness to even think about competing against big tech. This is more than just defeatist. It displays a compete ignorance of the industry, as a whole! Whoever wrote that is clearly unaware of the origins of frameworks like VueJS, Laravel and Symfony - all of which were created by lone, unfunded developers. I think that negative, defeatist attitudes like that are disrespectful to the glorious history that Codeigniter has. In my opinion, it's perfectly reasonable to expect that a framework like Codeigniter (a top three PHP framework) can compete against big tech. I'm astonished that somebody who appears to be in some kind of authority position thinks it's madness for me to think so.
What remains unclear is whether that person's negative, defeatist attitude is representative of The Foundation as a whole.
I hope not.
Since that person has given me an uncompromising, 'machine gun' response - let's see if we can find some common ground. Something that we can agree on. Anything!
So... would any of the Codeigniter owners (who I'm still waiting to hear from) agree that the plight of professional Codeigniter developers is an issue that deserves to be taken seriously?
