why-php.md

why-php.md

Why PHP?

Notes about building out the "Why PHP?" page.

Targets

There are two groups I think we should target, with two distinct sets of interests and who may require two separate treatments.

First group:

• Non-technical decision makers at companies considering PHP
• Technical high-level decision makers at companies considering PHP
• Decision makers at schools, bootcamps, universities

Second group:

• Newcomers to tech?
• Existing programmers?

Myths to dispel/concerns to address

• PHP is old
• PHP is slow
• PHP doesn't scale
• Nothing important runs on PHP
• It would be hard to hire PHP developers
• It's not what most AI tooling is written

Points to make

Two separate pages or sections: one addressing decision-makers and one addressing learners.

So let's look at each separately:

Points to make to decision makers

• Show big brands using PHP
• Make a few points about what PHP offers above and beyond just dispelling criticisms
• Dispel common myths (maybe a link to this section from the top for those looking?)

Points to make to learners

• Show something about job opportunities in PHP
• Show syntax and link to learning resources
• Show something about how quickly and powerfully you can build your apps in PHP

Other web sites to consider as inspiration:

Rust

https://www.rust-lang.org/

Ruby

https://www.ruby-lang.org/en/

Go

https://go.dev/

Dot Net

https://dotnet.microsoft.com/en-us/platform/why-choose-dotnet

Kotlin

https://kotlinlang.org/

Elixir

https://elixir-lang.org/

General ideas that are in others:

• Case studies (or just logo clouds)
• Samples of code
• Simple one-sentence descriptions of why it's great or what it's about
• Simple one-paragraph descriptions of why it's great or what it's about
• Bullets/paragraph groups with headers about the primary reasons to use it (e.g. Rust)

I'm not convinced showing samples of PHP code is really our best option.

I'm leaning toward:

• Starting with something like the Rust header. Big sentence, small paragraph, then a few big bullet items about what it offers
• Case studies (but we don't have those right now so maybe logo cloud for now)
• Maybe for now one big section (first) trying to communicate to potential the decision-makers, and one big section (second) for newcomers

So something like:

hero section... PHP is abc.
---
first big section; 3-6 short headline points with small paragraphs supporting them. Try to dispel myths and speak positively about PHP's value
---
second big section: convincing big business. logo cloud, anything else here?
---
third big section: for newcomers. syntax, learning links, something about jobs?, some way of showing how quickly you can build with php
---
conclusion: links to other sections of the php site

I have been stuck on getting this written. It's so easy to come up with the broader ideas but getting actual pen to paper (figuratively) has been miserable. As a person who's written a 500+ page book, and hundreds of blog posts, this is a big surprise.

So.. I'm gonna cave, and use ChatGPT to get something started. But I'll be fully honest with what it generates.

I fed all my notes and reference sites into ChatGPT, and it outputted this structure. I re-wrote about 5% of this after its output, but this is all mainly ChatGPT. I'm going to walk away and come back to it later and see how I want to iterate on it.

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Why PHP?

PHP is a modern, powerful, and accessible language that runs the majority of the web. Whether you're a business leader looking for proven technologies, or an educator preparing the next generation of developers, or a new developer at the beginning of your career, PHP is a smart, pragmatic choice.

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Trusted by the Web

PHP powers over 75% of the web, including major platforms like WordPress, Wikipedia, and Facebook. From startups to Fortune 500 companies, PHP has earned its place as a reliable, scalable foundation for web applications of all sizes.

• Proven at Scale: Billions of users interact with PHP-driven sites daily.
• Secure and Stable: Actively maintained by a dedicated core team and supported by a vibrant open-source community.
• Open and Free: PHP is open source and free to use, with no licensing fees.

Fast, Modern, and Developer-Friendly

PHP today is a far cry from the scripting language of the early 2000s. It's fast, expressive, and designed for developer productivity.

• Modern Features: Strong typing, attributes, named arguments, first-class functions, enums, and more.
• Great Tooling: Composer for dependency management, PHPUnit for testing, and a rich ecosystem of frameworks like Laravel, Symfony, Drupal, and WordPress.
• Blazing Fast: PHP 8+ includes a Just-In-Time (JIT) compiler and continual performance improvements.

Simple to Learn, Powerful to Master

PHP is accessible for beginners and rewarding for experienced developers.

• Easy Start: With a low barrier to entry, PHP is ideal for teaching programming and web development fundamentals.
• Scales with You: Start with a simple script, grow into complex applications, services, and APIs.
• Readable and Intuitive: PHP is known for code that looks like what it does, making it easy to teach and maintain.

Vibrant Ecosystem

The PHP ecosystem is filled with libraries, tools, tutorials, and a global community ready to support you.

• Active Community: Conferences, meetups, podcasts, forums, and vibrant online groups.
• Rich Libraries: Thousands of packages available via Packagist.
• Frameworks and Platforms: Laravel, Symfony, Drupal, Magento, WordPress, and many more.

Built for the Web

Unlike general-purpose languages retrofitted for the web, PHP was built for it from day one.

• Web First: Native support for HTTP, HTML output, and fast request handling.
• Deploy Anywhere: Runs on nearly every web server and operating system.
• Seamless Access to External Systems: Great support for databases, APIs, AI tools, and more.

Why Businesses and Organizations Choose PHP

• Speed to Market: Rapid development tools and frameworks.
• Huge Talent Pool: Millions of developers worldwide.
• Long-Term Viability: Decades of stability, regular releases, and a clear roadmap.

Why Educators and Students Choose PHP

• Beginner-Friendly: Easy to install, easy to learn.
• Real-World Skills: Used by companies of all sizes.
• Relevant Curriculum: Web development fundamentals, programming logic, and backend architecture.