I’ve had some people try to pull me onto the RoR train in the past, saying it’s the hottest thing around. Others have pointed Flex as the way forward. I’m just not so sure about things anymore.
Trust me, I’ve worked with the .NET framework both in and out of the web context and the problems it has is the ‘one model fits all’ theory as does Java. I haven’t explored Ruby on Rails or Flex yet. PHP was designed from the ground up with scalability in all directions guaranteed, and I daresay it’s been rewarding. Of course, there are a myriad of security risks when PHP’s put in the wrong hands but they’re worth it. A chainsaw can be used to cut down a tree for wood or to saw off necks, but it’s still a tool — what matters is if it does the job well.
The lack of patterns and a few other features such as no namespace support and inconsistent function names have been criticized in PHP, but I think what matters is that you can implement whatever feature you feel has been left out, in your own way.
I haven’t been able to do any coding for a while but I’ll be moving to Cake soon. Here’s a post from someone who thinks the way I do.
I guess I’m an old stick-in-the-mud, but when the time comes to move on to some new language, I’ll be up for it, however much nostalgia I feel for PHP. Let’s hope PHP 6 gives the other web wannabes a good run.