Except that happiness and despair haven't got much to do with the language. It's the work you do and the environment you're in that make you happy or unhappy.

Exactly. The tools themselves are rarely the source of anguish.

I'd MUCH rather write a language I don't enjoy in a clean, well-architected project than use my favorite language in a bandages-on-"quickfixes"-on-bandages project.

Have you ever used PHP before?

No, I must be a one trick pony who has only ever used one language, on one platform, in one workplace and has no experience on which to base his claims. What sense would it make to post a comment based on personal experience, right?

Sorry, didn't mean to get your knickers in a twist, I was only being tongue-in-cheek.

Nice idea! Interesting if everyone thinks "happiness & zen coding" is coding in Ruby?! And if all agree that PHP coding is "Despair"

I disagree, I haven't had a single bad experience with PHP in years of use, maybe I'm just lucky or too close minded, but having used python, perl and ruby for programming too, I actually prefer PHP.

You don't want to start this