Is PHP worth it ???

Anon

Planning to make a career change in PHP...do we have sufficient jobs in Market for PHP ??? how is the demand ?? please be very true..

Anon

Check out yahoo jobs. There is a very high demand.

I recently quit my rather sane position with a dot-not to work for mycomputer.com. The use PHP and mysql exclusively, but they hired scrubs. With around 50 programmers, I expected some very competent individuals from which I could learn. I didn't find any and quit about 4 months after starting. Among my reasons for quitting was bad and hard to maintain code in every project as well as very bad database designes.

The moral? PHP is easy to learn and bad code is easy to write. If you want to make a career out of php (as I tried) make sure you either do contractual piece work from home, or interview the company you are going to work for very closely. Ask if they use phplib or have good similar base classes. Find out if they use templating (this would have helped my stint at MyC. immensly if they had). Find out how many years other employees have programmed and how much experience the management has. Ask to look at their datamodel (if they say 'what?' or 'we don't have one', that's a very bad sign).

Tom

Anon

thanks for the advice tom
anyone else for sharing thoughts ???

Anon

its really worth it. It's a very easy language and becomming more and more popular because it works so well side by side with MySQL.

I stopped learning Perl to learn PHP. I love it!

Anon

When you say it's worth it, how much per hour does it
pay and what is the client base? Can you name some
major companies that use it?

I too am considereing learning PHP or some other type of
web scripting lanuage such as JSP, ASP or Cold Fusion but
I have to continue to support my wife and children in the
manner which they are accustomed. I need clients who
will pay me what I make now programming on midrange
business systems.

Anon

PHP is definatly the best choice over the other scripting languages.

I don't think Cold fusion is generally as well known/supported, Perl is kinda old now and dying out over PHP, And I dont see any point going for a Java scripting language - why go for platform indepence on the server-side when you can have speed??

ASP is proberbly PHPs better rival, but you will not find such a big ASP supporting-community as the PHP one!
Becoz PHP is OSS, there is more support from other users than a central ownership, and it will develop faster and more popularly.

Anon

I certainly concur with what everyone else has already said
about PHP being a viable skill to have, but I do have one
caution you need to remember-- It's Just Another Language.
If you're not simultaneously building up your conceptual
skills that you could transfer to the Next Big Thing, you're
going to be in a risky position no matter what.

Anon

thanks guys..
how about Greg's question ?? how much is the pay potential for PHP jobs ??
(well..as this is a general section i hope the web master does not mind this discussion)

Anon

People seem to think that the pay is different whether you know PHP, ASP or something else...

Come on people...thats not the case...
It depends on what assignemnts you solve...not which tool you use...it's the result...And it depends most on the employer...some pay well...others don't....it has NOTHING to do with PHP.

I have been programming ASP since day one and often get apyed quite good, but sometimes they offer @!#$ pay and i say no...I also program PHP...same situation...some pay good some don't....

The pay dpends on the job...If the job is to build a multi-language dynamic DB driven e-commerce site, which can handle 2 million hits an hour, then the pay is high.... It has NOTHING to do with they language/tool you use....

Just becuase you have a cheap car, do you belive that menas that getting it repaired should be cheaper than if you own a $4 million ferrari?
No...other than the different price for spareparts the reapir it self should be just about the same....

Anon

Excellent point. Languages are nice and all, but after leaving the "Mom 'n Pop" programming/web design places and moving to a big corporate environment, I'd have to say that project management/planning skills are AT LEAST as important as the actual programming language.

If its money or job security you're after, I'd be looking into UML (Uniform Modeling Language) at the same time you're looking into PHP.

UML is not a programming language...it's a set of guidlines you can follow to ensure that you define all of the requirements for an application BEFORE any coding actually takes place. It's surprising how even the most simple applications can be helped by developing "Use Cases" and getting the requirements in writing before starting a project.

Check out UML and Object Oriented Application Design if you're planning to build sturdy applications. Not every app needs use cases, etc. - but it covers yer butt in case something was missed!

Anon

I would disagree with one point

"Perl is kinda old now and dying out over PHP"

Perl has its place. I have written applications that you just can't use PHP for, yet perl works great.

PHP/Perl both have their place. Both are equally powerful and both have their up sides and down sides.

Don't rule out one language over another. Each language has its place.

Darren
http://www.php4hosting.com/

Anon

Sure, Perl has some functionality which PHP does not have...

But the functionallity of a language is not just what the code can execute,,,
It's also how the program interfaces to others, how supported it is, it's syntax, it's speed, its cross-platform-friendliness, it's demand!!!

All I am saying, is that the conventions Perl uses are more outdated than PHP. The Php community is growing and the Perl community is learning PHP.

That's mainly what I was getting at when I said Perl is dying out over Php..demands and conventions are changing.

Anon

Bad car analogy. If you actually owned an exotic car you would realize that the mechanical charges are higher than domestic mechanical work.

How many Ferrari repair shops are in your town? Would you take a Ferrari to a shadetree mechanic to work on it? These people have to be highly trained and use sophisticated diagnostic computers to find out what's wrong.

These cars don't have the good old 350 V8's in em.

Anon

Hello all,

To answer rapidly YES,

First off the car is a Really bad analogy! 🙂 no offense meant. As for PHP as a worth while language, Yes, as worth while as say Java/JSP no. I write PHP and Java and UML(Rhiorg Mennis good point!) bla bla bla. I call php the "fun Language". Its easy to write easy debug to but very limited. Its a loose typed language, but growing(fast). It will NEVER come close to Java.(maby i shouldn't say never?) ( Any one who writes Java knows this so unless you have written large applications with PHP and with Java don't comment ) PHP is a great place to start and like mentioned earlier in this discussion, DONT limit yourself, its all about learning good technique, and the language you like the most.(personally i cant stand ASP/Cold Fusion) Don't limit yourself to scripting languages. Like it or not C++/JAVA/C/SmallTalk/(DBA's) coders DO MAKE more in salary than web scripters! PERIOD.FACT! And generally the jobs are cushier.

HTH

pete