So it is easy, but have you tried building a web app in Python? You don't even need a web server. Only in recent versions Php got it's own web server. The point is, that Php is easy is mostly a myth. Other languages have as easy path to building a web applications. But they just stop short of giving up any sanity or security...

I am not sure if we should encourage people to make that tradeoff..

Php is a language that traded off every bit of sanity and security for "ease of use".

There's nothing sane about unusably difficult languages.

I saw in another comment you accuse others of using 'dirty internet tricks'. I am afraid you are either using them to the limit by yourself, or your logic is all messed up.

I will try to explain anyway. A langauge can be made difficult just for the sake of it. For example, Brainfuck. But a language can also be a bit more difficult as a result of process/methodologies that make it more secure/sane. For example the borrow checker in rust and purity in Haskell. Both of these make these languages a bit harder to use than usual.

What Php does it the opposite. Examples are things like "10"=="0x0a" being true and Php arrays being a mashup of a number of different data structures, and include/require functions that provide zero namespacing, register globals, magic_quotes etc etc....Now some of these are removed, I know, so please don't come back with that. I am mostly pointing towards one of the founding principle of the language..

Consistent languages are easier to learn.

Got a simple Hello World PHP site? Open your SFTP client, drag and drop, done.

Got a Hello World Python app? You have to know about WSGI adapters, process monitors, usually some sort of reverse proxying, how you're going to handle your static files, and so on.

Oh, and let's not forget that to even get to that point, you needed to use a framework of some kind, which meant wrestling with Pip and virtualenvs; you can't just 'echo "Hello World"'.

I'm picking on Python here because web dev in Python is my day job, but the story is similar for many other languages.

    #!/usr/local/bin/python2
    import cgi
    print "Content-type: text/html\n\n"
    query = cgi.FieldStorage()
    if "name" in query:
        print "Hello, %s!" % query["name"].value
    else:
        print """
        <p>Insert your name and hit Go! to get greeted!</p>
        <form action='/cgi-bin/hello-py.cgi' method='get'>
          <input type='text' name='name'/>
          <button type='submit'>Go!</button>
        </form>"""

Though that might be mitigated somewhat by things like Heroku and App Engine. My first Python code was with the latter, and I didn't even realise I was using it.

Of course it introduces a few of its own but on the whole I'd say Node is definitely easier to work with for a newcomer.

Besides, real world evidence is against your theoritical musings.

That said, PHP is my go-to language when I what to get up something fast and with not much server side logic.

Consistent error handling is a matter of one set_error_handler() call.

Ok, undeed PHP can be called inconsistent, if one would have a fancy to. And this opinion could be even defended with numerous examples... which examples, for some reason, do not work neither for learners who prefer PHP over "more consistent languages", nor professional developers, who just get their job done.

To boil it down, I think this "inconsistency" argument works more for the internet discussion than for the real life consideration.

They prefer Php because they don't know any better, because they are, well, learners.

>nor professional developers, who just get their job done...

Because they were the "learners" in the earlier statement. Now they are "professionals", but still don't know any better, because they were happy from the beginning, and there is a whole community of Php apologists who will provide validation, so they didn't bothered to look elsewhere.

And someone who looked elsewhere saw a lot of unfamiliar stuff, and were turned off by it. So remained tied to php for ever...It is quite sad.

Honestly, you are claiming that all these people are dumb and lazy. I respect some snobbery but apparently not up to that point.

It's hardly the only thing wrong with PHP, it's just one particular example.

> Nevertheless, for me it never was a problem - neither at a time when I used to stick with FAR commander's internal editor, nor - especially - with PHPStorm nowadays

How can it be especially not a problem? That would imply it was a problem and is now less of one.

In any case, yes, you can maybe learn to deal with it, but it saves time to simply work with a language which doesn't have these problems.

> Ok, undeed PHP can be called inconsistent, if one would have a fancy to. And this opinion could be even defended with numerous examples... which examples, for some reason, do not work neither for learners who prefer PHP over "more consistent languages", nor professional developers, who just get their job done.

Can you actually defend why these examples “don't work”? Learners and professionals alike have to deal with PHP's quirks.