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Is php worth it?
#1

[eluser]RyanPriestman[/eluser]
I was emailing a very succesful danish programmer yesterday.

He said, dont bother learning php - as Ruby on Rails is a much better all 'n all

Is this true?
#2

[eluser]2think[/eluser]
Ryan,
Not sure if this is a post just to drum up some issues on here but I'll try to answer as someone who has moved from C & Java to PHP, Ruby & Python (in that order, more or less).

I think Ruby on Rails is very powerful, awesome really. I've found though that there are some issues that require a bit of working through compared to something like Codeigniter(PHP). For one, there are sometimes hosting difficulties in shared environments or even with dedicated environments. Not a deal breaker with Phusion Passenger out now but it is still another element on the stack to support/configure. It could just be I'm limited.

As for PHP, well it is supported across a range of hosts and particularly with Codeigniter, there is a lot less automatically generated code. I was/am wowed by Rails ability to do things, especially when it comes to things like migrations (database changes) but the ability to fully understand my code when working with Codeigniter is a big plus.

For my needs and experience, I love Rails but see Codeigniter as a great solution with PHP.
#3

[eluser]Mark Skilbeck[/eluser]
[quote author="RyanPriestman" date="1259627430"]I was emailing a very succesful danish programmer yesterday.

He said, dont bother learning php - as Ruby on Rails is a much better all 'n all

Is this true?[/quote]

I haven't used Ruby on Rails, 'though I have heard nothing but good things about it. This. however, does not validate his suggestion to not 'bother learning php.'

There was a site I visited not long ago that showed the comparisons in usage between PHP, Python, Perl, Ruby, Java, etc. on the web. Guess who was on top? PHP. Most of the major sites use PHP. What does this say about PHP? It definitely doesn't say it's the best language, but it does say it's the most widely used language on the web, and, from that bombshell, you can see that most web development jobs will require PHP.

So, yes, PHP is worth learning.

- Mark.

P.S. Tell this successful Danish programmer to learn the difference between a framework and a language (Ruby on Rails = framework, PHP = Language).
#4

[eluser]RyanPriestman[/eluser]
I'm still learning PHP - getting given that advice doesn't change a thing!

I read many reviews, and i may to of seen the site where it compares them all, where PHP came out on top!

For a fact, i do love PHP, just because alot of hosting centres/companies support it Smile
#5

[eluser]Johan André[/eluser]
[quote author="RyanPriestman" date="1259627430"]I was emailing a very succesful danish programmer yesterday.

He said, dont bother learning php - as Ruby on Rails is a much better all 'n all

Is this true?[/quote]

Not really, no... Smile

Ruby on Rails is in some ways a more rapid framework.
But it can be a real hassle to host your apps.
PHP is available almost everywhere and there are alot of shared hosts that probably
will meet your needs.
#6

[eluser]garymardell[/eluser]
I always considered ruby on rails to be used when creating a hosted service of some kind rather than getting freelance jobs and distributing scripts. Maybe its just me.
#7

[eluser]skunkbad[/eluser]
My concern with putting time into learning RonR is that I can do what I need to do with PHP, so what's the point? Sure, there could be a unique job out there that has special needs, but most people just need a simple website. PHP is great for anything I have needed, and CodeIgniter makes PHP super easy to work with. At some point, if I have nothing better to do, I would like to learn RonR. It couldn't hurt. I just think to say that PHP isn't good enough is to turn a blind eye to its massive array of benefits.
#8

[eluser]t'mo[/eluser]
It depends. What are you building? Web "sites"? Or web "applications"? (And I'm not saying you can't build a site with Rails and you can't build an app with PHP - you can.)

I've taken several stabs at learning Rails, and am in the process of doing so again. There's quite a learning curve, and quite a lot of "magic" going on under the covers there. I can see a lot of potential for moving quickly once I'm up to speed with Rails, but it's going to take me months to get there.

Step back a couple years. I was in the same boat learning CodeIgniter. But the learning curve wasn't quite so steep; I think I got up that mountain quite nicely by myself. (Well, not exactly by myself; I had this site and google, but I'm finding I get much more traction with Rails when I'm working in person with other developers.)

Overall, I would say Rails offers more potential, but if you're only doing "simple" stuff, PHP/CI is perfectly adequate. In fact, it's quite enjoyable - for what it offers, it's quite powerful and organized. Much better than a giant "index.php" that does everything, or attempting to split up a site's functionality into a bunch of "include"'d files.
#9

[eluser]Jacek Dominiak[/eluser]
Don't know how is Ruby, have seen only some videos, seemed pretty neat for me. I was into DJango lately, thinking to have it a go for the project I am currently working on, and guess what. I came back to CI after all, just due the fact that my hosting provider gives a possibility to use django, unfortunately with additional fee. What a joke, isn't it.
Another point is, not even concerning the hosting, I believe it's much easier to jump into existent frame worked PHP code rather than python or ruby one, or is it only my impression?
And there is always a point of profitability, how much easier it is to be employed, get projects and some part-time job for PHP developer. At least job offers seems to suggest that.
#10

[eluser]jedd[/eluser]
A friend of mine has just started on a 12-week django contract, as it happens - but I suspect there's more commercial call for extant PHP sites. On the downside this means that the prices are lower for PHP contracts.

Django is also in a weird position - it's about 18-24 months behind Python's current release .. actually I think Django's on 2.3 from memory. I'm looking at Python now - but decided to learn v3 rather than 2. Usually version numbers aren't a huge problem - things are typically backwards compatible - but there's some non-trivial changes in this transition. A bit like perl 6 ... or every version of Java ever released, for that matter.




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