What you miss is that I can source a dozen qualified PHP candidates in ten minutes just by searching my inbox for e-mails from recruiters I haven't yet deleted, that already know these things, and that charges substantially less than equivalently skilled candidates in a lot of the languages we both might agree are more elegant, if I'd even find those candidates - contrary to PHP, I don't have recruiters beating down my door to place candidates that are skilled in Ruby, and when I've helped friends find candidates for Ruby work, it's always far harder, and they end up paying a lot.

I detest PHP from a language writers standpoint. Programming language design is a hobby of mine, and I am a real snob about programming languages from a personal preference point of view, and PHP certainly does not measure up.

But I don't let my pet ideas about what a programming language should be like stop me from doing my job, which is to ensure we have an environment and team where we can get projects in on time and on budget with a staff that is both skilled enough and cost effective enough to keep us profitable. Is it possible to do this with Ruby? Sure. But the dynamics are very different, and the potential customers tend to be quite different.

I've written web services in a number of languages, including C and C++, and been responsible for systems in a mix of PHP and Perl that handled ~$50 million worth of card payments and invoicing, and I've developed Ruby based systems and hybrid PHP - Ruby - C++ stacks. When I can justify picking Ruby, I do, because I love the language. But I refuse to pick Ruby just because I personally like it and it has a higher coolness factor in the face of economics where it doesn't make sense, such as when there's installed bases or teams that are already skilled at PHP. It'd be irresponsible.

Where are you getting the notion that unit tests and parameterized SQL are difficult or not commonly used in PHP?

You don't have to use those things, but they are there if you want them, just like they are in other languages. Neither Python nor Ruby enforce unit test or parameterized SQL requirements.

I don't like the language itself, but I do like the myriad benefits it brings. The only pet language I hold to a different standard is Perl.