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I was just talking about with a student who got on to a PHP project with an older developer lead. We decided that PHP is a code smell for a poorly managed proje

I was just talking about with a student who got on to a PHP project with an older developer lead. We decided that PHP is a code smell for a poorly managed project. You know, the kind that were common in the early aughts that featured poor version control practices, no tests, no automation, live changes, live database schema, etc., etc. That's certainly not the way things have to be, but it's never surprising if it is. The root cause is the developer in charge and their reports, but PHP usage is an easy marker to check. We found most examples using other languages (you mention) to be generally better managed in our area/sampling.

lioeters 7y ago
> PHP is a code smell for a poorly managed project Woo, that's a harsh but honest assessment.. Having lived through countless PHP projects, I'd have to say I agree. > That's certainly not the way things have to be As the article pointed out, there are new developments in the language, frameworks, tooling, etc., that support better practices and well-managed projects. It's just that the average codebase still tends to be haphazardly organized, idiosyncratic, bloated, complicated, tough to maintain and extend. The popularity and evolution of PHP have been impressive, and having used it for years I do have some fondness for it. But at some point, I think it becomes necessary to move on to other languages and systems that encourage best practices from the beginning, with a higher baseline/average code quality.