Re:I still love PHP and JavaScript
by ChrisMarshallNY on Wednesday August 03, 2022 @09:56AM
(#32331712)
> I also think there is something unique about PHP documentation. It has plenty of real life examples, and the ability for users to leave comments allows you to hear directly from others "gotchas" that people have experienced. I feel like PHP documentation is very undervalued.
I think it's the best documentation out there, and that part of the reason it's easy to document, is because the language uses a standard library, and functions, as opposed to the structure of the language, itself, to provide most of the utility. Functions are easy to document.
They do a good job of "cleaning out the cruft," as well, so that there isn't much in the way of "no longer applies" stuff.
Part of it, too, is that the language probably supports stuff all the way back to 4. They tend not to deprecate, and accrete, instead (not always a good thing). That means that examples and discussions maintain relevance, even years later.
One of the biggest issues that people tend to have with PHP, is that it allows you to write bad code.
I came from a C++ shop (another language that people love to hate). If you think you can write bad code in PHP, C++ says "Hold my beer."
I am a big believer in Discipline. With Discipline, we can write excellent, maintainable, code in any language. I have written stuff in Assembly, FORTRAN, Pascal, PL/1, Perl, Bash, BASIC, C, C++, ObjC, and Swift, that is quite well-structured, maintainable, and well-documented.
I think it's the best documentation out there, and that part of the reason it's easy to document, is because the language uses a standard library, and functions, as opposed to the structure of the language, itself, to provide most of the utility. Functions are easy to document.
They do a good job of "cleaning out the cruft," as well, so that there isn't much in the way of "no longer applies" stuff.
Part of it, too, is that the language probably supports stuff all the way back to 4. They tend not to deprecate, and accrete, instead (not always a good thing). That means that examples and discussions maintain relevance, even years later.
One of the biggest issues that people tend to have with PHP, is that it allows you to write bad code.
I came from a C++ shop (another language that people love to hate). If you think you can write bad code in PHP, C++ says "Hold my beer."
I am a big believer in Discipline. With Discipline, we can write excellent, maintainable, code in any language. I have written stuff in Assembly, FORTRAN, Pascal, PL/1, Perl, Bash, BASIC, C, C++, ObjC, and Swift, that is quite well-structured, maintainable, and well-documented.