Help me out here

abc123

I've been having a heated debate with the director of the company I work for. I am a student and still deciding on my future. I want to be a php developer and have my own business doing it.

I am a huge fan of open source. My boss is not.

He has been telling me to get into programming things like Sharepoint and CRM. Yes he is a Microsoft partner.

Apparently by going into PHP I will not make much money. I am outraged.

I love the php language and think it is going places. I look at Sharepoint and CRM and think.... Hey! I can do that in php and it would be better.

Help me out here. Should I get involved in Sharepoint and CRM programming or stick with php? While I love the language at the end of the day I have a family to support and need to get food to the table.

If anyone has anything that they would like to say to the Microsoft preacher then please post and I will take pleasure on having a smart answer to his ... "Where's the money in PHP".

Cheers,
abc123

NogDog

Frankly, if you want to maximize your marketability as a programmer, learn Java, C++/C#, and the .NET framework. That's where the most jobs with the biggest companies are.

I too love PHP as a tool, but while I think there will be a future for good PHP programmers for some time to come, it's seldom used or is mostly used in a support roles by the major players in the IT world, and the guys making the big bucks will be those that can develop Java and/or C++ apps (probably working with Oracle or MSSQL databases).

abc123

Are you my boss? Only kidding.

Yes that is exactly what my boss said. But why not take php further. I think it has huge potential and needs people to take it forward.

I appreciate you views. I suppose I'm looking for someone to say something like "Hey, PHP rocks, It'll be worth millions to be able to program in it".

Reality must set in I suppose. But I refuse to give up on php.

C++ is clearly a good thing to learn. Is that not what php is programmed in?

I've looked at .NET but don't seem to see much good support out there. Am I looking in the wrong place? Probably.

I think php can be used by the biggest companies. Does Google not use it? Who needs asp?

I am disheartenend that you echo what my boss said. But I take your views onboard.

Where is PHP going then? No where?

Weedpacket

abc123 wrote:
C++ is clearly a good thing to learn. Is that not what php is programmed in?

C. If you want full low-level control of the computer, while still being universally portable, you write it in C. Not that overly baroque proof of concept tech demo that is C++; which 94.3% of programmers who use it fail to take proper advantage of anyway.

You don't make millions programming in PHP; you don't make millions programming in C#, C++, C, Java, Fortran or Cobol.

You make millions writing (and then marketing) killer apps in whatever language is suitable.

Larry Ellison didn't make billions writing in C; he made billions by writing Oracle.

Rodney_H_

Weedpacket wrote:
Larry Ellison didn't make billions writing in C; he made billions by writing Oracle.

Damn! He wrote that, too? I love his book, "The Invisible Man"... I didn't know he was a developer/programmer, too... 😉

Elizabeth

Of course, the more languages you learn, the more marketable you'll be but there are plenty of companies out there who are in desperate need of php people. A super-quick search on monster.com shows >1000 jobs on the keyword "PHP" (and >1000 jobs on the keyword "ASP") as well. Just because you're in a company utilizing open source technology doesn't mean you're not making money or that you're not profitable. I definitely think you should not overlook PHP's potential.

[edit]As a matter of fact, you can mention to your boss that the companies utilizing open source technologies are actually going to be more profitable and probably be around longer than those that aren't because of the tremendous cost savings associated with using open source. Of course, if he'd rather give all that money to Mr. Gates instead of his employees, then you're better off finding a company that doesn't have to feed the beast.[/edit]

abc123

Thanks for the replies.

Have been looking at other languages. Just annoying that I spend so much time learning php for my boss to basically tell me it's a dead end.

I have mentioned to him about the fact it is open source and hence free but I think that makes him more nervous than anything.

Wish he would give me more money. At the moment I'm thinking that the salary of Mr Gates is just above mine at the moment (by a few billion). Never mind. 🙂

Elizabeth

abc123, you might also want to point him to PHP usage statistics:

http://www.nexen.net/chiffres_cles/phpversion/php_stats_evolution_for_august_2006.php

Something that powers almost 35% of all websites hardly seems like a "waste of time" to learn. 🙂

abc123

That was what I was needing. Evidence!

Thanks very much. I'll have to show him these statistics.