It's a pity that people still build important app in PHP, because despite improvements to PHP, there are several, even many, languages out there that beats PHP flat out on all fronts.
PHP used to be by far the easiest language to get started with for web dev. This is not the case anymore.
And while you're certainly entitled to disagreement, Tim Bray is about as far from "so called" you can get for a software professional.
"PHP used to be by far the easiest language to get started with for web dev. This is not the case anymore."
um - who would be the contenders? in terms of getting started, which also means deploying and see your stuff on something other than your local machine, I can't think of anything better supported than PHP. Most budget hosting you can simply upload your brand new, first-ever PHP script and have it 'just work'. No need to worry about wsgi, cgi-bin, application servers or anything.
As much as I loathe PHP because it sweeps the developer towards bad habits and unreadable, bug-ridden, slop, I love it because, rather like a bash, it's a flexible and comprehensive tool in my toolbox.
PHP used to be by far the easiest language to get started with for web dev. This is not the case anymore.
And while you're certainly entitled to disagreement, Tim Bray is about as far from "so called" you can get for a software professional.