NYCPHP Meetup

[Gary Mort]

Anthony's comments on my last post reminded me of an issue I feel PHP is 
facing today.

PHP is a wonderfully messy language.  You can use PHP to insert a small 
bit of customization in an otherwise flat website.  Something as simple 
as saying "Good morning", "Good afternoon", and "Good evening" at the 
top of a welcome page.  Adding a small hit counter.

This usage allows for everyone to customize their own websites - which 
is one of the great strengths of the open source community - the idea 
that we empower the end users to do whatever they want for themselves.

It allows for a gentle learning curve, where you can go from little bits 
of PHP to a complex set of conditions and actions on a single PHP page, 
and then on to seperating code out into libraries of common functions 
but still single pages, and finally to frameworks and obtuse programs 
such as
=====
<?php

$app = Factory::getApplication();
$app->execute();
======


Maybe it is just me, but I see more and more a focus on obtuse 
programming.  It is seen as "professional" and "secure"....and 
incidentally programmers can charge a lot more money when the programs 
are so complex that the end user can't make their own modifications 
anymore.

When I first started out with PHP over 20 years ago, I found it to be an 
open community of people passing on hints and help - very open with 
their help and supportive of new coders.

Contrasting that with Python and Rails, I found them to be greedy 
communities, where everyone is a "professional" and "available for 
consultation".

Now....I'm not so sure.  It seems to me that PHP is becoming more 
"professional".  Am I alone in this?