[ale] asp user learning php?

James Sumners james.sumners at gmail.com
Fri Mar 8 19:44:08 EST 2013


I wasn't going to bring it up, but I agree. I really question the
wisdom of learning PHP today. The only paying work you're going to
land with it is maintaining some old _really_ nasty code.

But I don't know what else to recommend. I like Python well enough,
but I don't know what sort of jobs it'll earn you (doesn't seem to be
too terribly popular). Personally, I can't stand Ruby, but I'm
definitely in the minority on that one. You _could_ modernize your
JavaScript skills and work with Node.js, but I don't see that being
more than a niche (and this would be my favorite option).

As I see it, there are really only two viable platforms right now: the
one I derided in my previous response (.NET) and the JVM. Each has
problems, but I'm really liking the JVM as a web development platform.
It at least was designed for such, unlike .NET.

On Fri, Mar 8, 2013 at 7:29 PM, Richard Bronosky <richard at bronosky.com> wrote:
> Well then, this is REALLY not an answer to the question as asked, but I'll
> going to say it anyway. Now is a bad time to learn php. I did professional
> php for 10 years. I worked at Yahoo! I had folks like Rasmus Lerdorf and
> Jeremy Zawodny as peers. So, I'm not just a basher.
>
> However, after learning Python and getting involved in that community I can
> tell you that the quality of code developed in each are vastly unequal.
> Python encourages better coding. Php is now often a case of the blind
> leading the blind. Just saying you are a php developer gets you looked down
> upon by many employers and developers with a computer science background. I
> would not change the choice I made in 1999, but I wouldn't make it again
> today.
>
> Sent from my Samsung Galaxy S3 using the Swype software keyboard.
> --Richard Bronosky

-- 
James Sumners
http://james.roomfullofmirrors.com/

"All governments suffer a recurring problem: Power attracts
pathological personalities. It is not that power corrupts but that it
is magnetic to the corruptible. Such people have a tendency to become
drunk on violence, a condition to which they are quickly addicted."

Missionaria Protectiva, Text QIV (decto)
CH:D 59


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