Death of php?

[loki_]

Google is pretty much the only web service that stays away from php and mostly because it didn't exist when google started. They have around 100 employees working with php. They actually use C/C++ and java and they glue them together with python.

PHP isn't slow at all. As a matter of fact it is very quick if written well. Forget about websites and stuff like that. Most SOAP services are ran through PHP. Smartphone apps with in application payments that charge you directly from your monthly bill-here comes the shock of everyone who thinks php is dead-that is driven by PHP.

With direct access to the system php is pretty much limitless in terms of functionality. 5.4 came out, a lot has been going on about version 6 as well so... No it isn't dead and won't be for a long time ahead.

 

[devnull]

I figured Google would be using quite a bit of Go or Erlang nowdays

 

[socialdevinfo]

I agree PHP is in rapid development face, but Facebook is not PHP powered website, thats not true, it's multi- language product that connected through web services, Python plays major role in some facebook modules, and of couse C and Java

 

[loki_]

Here is the problem. People consider php to be a "website" language which is far not where it ends. That is page one, chapter one... Php could perfectly well be a working environment for just about anything. I mean it can control hardware, not just on the server, but remote hardware with the proper configuration.

 

[devnull]

Here is the problem. People consider php to be a "website" language which is far not where it ends. That is page one, chapter one... Php could perfectly well be a working environment for just about anything. I mean it can control hardware, not just on the server, but remote hardware with the proper configuration.

True, but if you try to build a large multi-threaded app it quickly starts to suck. I love PHP, but I wouldn't use it to control hardware or anything i/o heavy (not asynchronous). Threading support sucks as well.

 

[socialdevinfo]

True, but if you try to build a large multi-threaded app it quickly starts to suck. I love PHP, but I wouldn't use it to control hardware or anything i/o heavy (not asynchronous). Threading support sucks as well.

totally agree, 5 mints....you're crashed and doomed.... back to drawing board, other thing that really scares me is ppl try to build everything on wordpress,

 

[loki_]

True, but if you try to build a large multi-threaded app it quickly starts to suck. I love PHP, but I wouldn't use it to control hardware or anything i/o heavy (not asynchronous). Threading support sucks as well.

Depends really. I wouldn't use it for Nasa's Mars rover(a.k.a. the Mars mini Cooper) but I can tell you that for things such as fiscal printers it works perfect.

 

[utuxia]

I don't think PHP will die, it's one of the best open source programming languages for web development. What I'm seeing happening in the last year or so, is more and more of what you used to put in the PHP side (mvc, data layer, etc) is all moving to client side (javascript frameworks)...so PHP is still there but its becoming a thin layer. And maybe calling a java api to get data. At least that's been my experience.

 

[senior]

PHP produces the web but mobile apps just display it on your small screen.

That is about the cleanest, briefest, correct reply I have seen.

 

[machineterminator]

php is a very simple and good language for web applications

 

[utuxia]

I'm wondering what makes you think the interpreter of the dynamically typed php beats the JIT compiler equipped virtual-machine of statically typed java?

I think ruby is up there too...and node.js is making waves. As for java, I mostly see it used for purely backend apis now-a-days. Not in web/front-end stack.

 

[derzok]

It's been said over and over, but php is serverside while mobile apps are mostly client-side. Saying that php is going to die because of mobile apps is like saying that cars are going to die out because of airplanes. When was the last time you got on an airplane to visit the grocery store?

Now if another language that did the same thing as php came out and took some of the marketshare away... then yes, that might threaten php's liftime. A perfect example is what php's done to perl (or arguably what perl did to awk). Yes, 99% of web developers would choose php over perl if given the choice... but there's still that 1% who'd use perl. So in my opinion, php will never "die" - hell, people still use awk!

And you know, you can build mobile apps using php/xml. They aren't true mobile (since they rely on a third party server that hosts the php files), but the difference is unnoticeable to the user.

 

[biglia]

Mobile apps will die soon, and will be replaced by HTML5 powered by php, asp.net,... which will run on iOS, Android, WP8. That's the future.

 

[socialdevinfo]

lol, in that future, you dont have augmented reality apps, no location based apps.... no financial apps, please keep that future with you! we dont need it, get your facts right before you claim something like that.

Mobile apps will die soon, and will be replaced by HTML5 powered by php, asp.net,... which will run on iOS, Android, WP8. That's the future.

 

[utuxia]

I don't know how well html5-based web apps will ever replace native mobile apps completely. Apple and Google and tons of developers are making money on their app stores. There's a lot of financial incentive to protect those revenue streams.

Then again, Prodigy and CompuServ had the same business model of a "walled-garden" -- before the internet took shape...and while those companies are gone, the business model is alive and well in app stores .

 

[derzok]

to respond to what biglia said...

Yes and no - I absolutely agree with you about mobile apps being phased out by "remote apps" (clever xml/html that can be interpreted by a mobile device and presented in a "mobile friendly" way).

But of course, there are plenty of things you WOULDN'T want to run on a remote system - things you want done "here and now" - things that are time critical. Maybe this analogy is a bit of a stretch, but... you wouldn't want the code that deploys your car's airbag be executed remotely, would you? Or what about mobile apps like Apparatus (a very cool real world physics game). Every time something moves, it has to check with a remote server to calculate the physics of the situation? I think not.

In short: php and mobile apps both have their place. They may overlap a little (or a lot) but there's always ground that they'll each hold as their own.

 

[proph37]

PHP is not a language for apps. It 's a language for the web. So, mobile apps are irrelevant, unless people stop using websites

Exactly!

 

[submitoke]

How do you guys think? I'm no php or programming expert but with the trend of moving to mobile apps, it seems the use of php is now quite limited.
Thanks in advance for your inputs

So, did you think no chance to built mobile apps with php ?

 

[superriku11]

Funny. But PHP is no where near dead and PHP will not die for the foreseeable future.

 

[wasif]

I know several software houses in my local area who have shifted from php to mobile apps. A real big business though. But PHP has it's worth in web world.