From: ptkwt@...1.aracnet.com (Phil Tomson)
Date: 2003-05-05T14:36:21+09:00
Subject: Why is PHP so popular?  What can we learn from the PHP camp?

....and what can we learn from PHP's rapid rise to success?

I've seen quite a few jobs which require PHP experience lately and I 
wonder why; what's PHP got that Ruby doesn't?  Sure, PHP is supposed to 
make web programming quite easy, but don't we have various Ruby 
packages/modules/classes that are competitive in that arena?  I'll admit I 
haven't looked at PHP much, but from what I've seen of the language, it 
doesn't seem all that impressive.

Conversely, I haven't seen any job listings which require Ruby skills 
since last summer (the only one I've seen was for an Intel job last summer, 
and from what I've heard they decided not to hire from the outside for that 
position).  I know that matz said at the RubyConf that it's not important 
to be popular; it's important to be good (I'm paraphrasing here) and I 
can understand that position, but some more popularity might help some of 
us actually land jobs where we could get paid to use our Ruby skills.

So, what can we learn from the PHP camp?  What have they done right in 
promoting their language?

Phil