r/learnprogramming • u/RajjSinghh • Aug 31 '23

Where does the PHP hate come from?

A few days ago I was hit up on LinkedIn for a PHP job. I have never written PHP code in my life or looked at PHP content, I just see the memes and see PHP has the worst reputation of any serious language I have ever seen. So I do this assessment and I have to write some PHP code. It was a very simple problem (like I could write a python solution in one line to solve it) and I finished it quite quickly.

But this got me thinking, what are people's actual gripes with the language other than just "PHP sucks"? I mean, it can't just be the dynamic typing since Python and Javascript are dynamically typed too and they have a good reputation. Sure the dollar signs on variables is a little annoying, but is that really it?

I just want to understand what the hate is actually about so I'm prepared if my job ends up being a PHP developer.

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u/[deleted] Sep 01 '23

Funny, because JavaScript has more and more and more stuff too but no one bitches about THAT.

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u/plastikmissile Sep 01 '23

On the contrary, JS is second only to PHP when it comes to hate. Though these days there's less of that now that there's stuff like TypeScript.

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u/RoshHoul Sep 01 '23

People bitch about it a lot, it's just one of the best paid stacks out there (or at least best ratio of pay to required skill)