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15 reasons why I love PHP

Published on February 28th, 2016 By zooboole Published on February 28th, 2016 By zooboole

I am not shy to say I really love PHP. When I first started programming back then in 2003, I first met Javascript. Although Javascript was more amusing and flashy, I fell in love with PHP. One of those things that impressed me the most then was how PHP was handling errors, like syntax errors. With that, I could easily learn PHP without the help of anyone, all I had to do is to manage to understand any occurring error message.

Far away from comparing PHP to any other programming languages which also have their respective qualities and fans, my approach is to show those reasons which make PHP a great choice for many people worldwide and also one of the most used in web development.

For a long time people have been hating PHP, many stopped using/learning it because of that. But comparing PHP from 1995 to now, I have a strong faith that it's going to do greater. So the bashing today looks like the one ten years ago. It will just help improve it. Look at PHP7 today.

Comparing PHP with other languages, and the non-trivial amount of its bad credibility around security is simply to me not worthy and my answer to that is - all languages suffer from the same problems.

Likewise any other programming language, PHP is a toolkit. It's power and weaknesses depend also on its user(programmer).

To make that short, here are my reasons that I picked around the web which make me love PHP and I think many people out there do too:

1. Easy to get going

Starting with PHP is very simple and easy. With its dynamic typing, a new user does not feel any pain. you can just mix some PHP tags with HTML, CSS, and javascript and get something running and that matters a lot when you start learning something new.

Besides, its installation and configuration are very easy, either on Windows or Linux. You can throw Apache and mod_php on a Linux server and be up and running in minutes, or you can easily install WAMP or XAMP on Windows and you are good to go.

2. Very portable

You can easily ship PHP in any application. Some examples are Wamp, EasyPHP, PHP Desktop, etc.

3. Scales well -No need to take care of many things

PHP comes with many built-in functionalities for many problems such as files, databases, images, audio, etc. helping you to create almost all sizes of project.

Even though the characteristic is not as easy as it may be in some other programming languages, but we can always get ways out.

4. Many good quality solutions for various web problems

PHP solves a lot of web problems and that's why I believe it's adopted in many websites and web servers.

5. A huge number of frameworks

From Micro-frameworks to full-fledged ones, you have all types of frameworks to choose from. That helps abstract some problems and to help you develop faster.

6. Great IDEs

Ahh, this is another fantastic thing in PHP world, IDEs: PHP Storm, Sublime Text, NetBeans, Zend Studio, Notepad++, etc.

7. No compilation

Zero waiting time before you see results. PHP is interpreted. So no waste of time to compile, link and debug before running.

8. Well known language, many people to choose from when hiring

When you are looking for PHP developers it's not a problem. You a huge amount of people to choose from.

9. Tons of jobs

There are all types of jobs out there for in PHP, from a simple application, through Frameworks, etc.

10. The community is great

No doubt PHP has a huge community. No matter the problem you have there is someone somewhere who had had it already or is willing to help you have a solution.

11. Integrated database support

PHP has built-in support for most databases like MYSQL, SQLITE, ORACLE, etc. That means it's easy for you to start using database even if you are a beginner. You don't actually need to install additional drivers. Also with PhpMyAdmin, you can interact with your databases using a graphical interface.

12. Supports procedural, object-oriented, and functional programming

The greatest programming styles are supported.

13. Old language -since 1995

Age is a considerable feature. PHP is getting matured, very matured. It's seen and supported many issues and the community has grown up in time.

14. Cheap hosting

Because PHP has been there for a while and works fine on both Windows and Linux, it's installed on many web servers. It's easy to find a hosting with PHP pre-installed.

15. Helps people pay bills

This may sound funny but a countless amount of people worldwide live with PHP. Finally, it's not a bad thing.

Bottom Line

There are probably more reasons to love or like PHP. And as a developer, we need to diversify ourselves in order to remain up to date in the market. It's, therefore, great for us to have a look at other programming languages such as Go, Python, Perl, Ruby, C, C++, etc in order to learn a different syntax and have a different way of reasoning.

Add as a comment any other qualities of PHP that are not mentioned here.