I think many like PHP because an inconsistent language full of design flaws is in many contexts better (in a less is more sense) than a good language that is backed by a complex web framework and library system that contains too many complexities, versioning issues, is slow by default or hard to tune, and so forth.
With PHP people have something that just works, reasonably, and given that an interpreter lives the lifespan of a "page view" making big errors is non trivial.
So PHP is not a good language, but many other languages should learn something from PHP. The problem is that the community backing this better dynamic languages, such as Python and Ruby, still for some (IMHO obscure) reason aren't shipping something that is PHP-alike, but just with a better base language (without trying to add tons of abstraction layers).
I no longer use PHP because after years of using better languages (I like Ruby as a "practical language") it's too hard to return back to PHP, but I often find myself fighting with the useless complexities and layers of abstractions that Ruby contains "by default". Not in the language or the implementation itself, that is good enough IHMO, but in the tons of gems around and in the integration with the web "side".
With PHP people have something that just works, reasonably, and given that an interpreter lives the lifespan of a "page view" making big errors is non trivial.
So PHP is not a good language, but many other languages should learn something from PHP. The problem is that the community backing this better dynamic languages, such as Python and Ruby, still for some (IMHO obscure) reason aren't shipping something that is PHP-alike, but just with a better base language (without trying to add tons of abstraction layers).
I no longer use PHP because after years of using better languages (I like Ruby as a "practical language") it's too hard to return back to PHP, but I often find myself fighting with the useless complexities and layers of abstractions that Ruby contains "by default". Not in the language or the implementation itself, that is good enough IHMO, but in the tons of gems around and in the integration with the web "side".