For web backend, being able to ship a single binary, such as what Rust and Go can provide, is really nice. I don't see PHP as a more compelling solution than either of those languages.
Scripting and command line automation is executed better by Python and Ruby, which excel for writing Unix scripts and tools.
I do not see what the use case for PHP is in 2020.
PHP has one of the most abhorrent language syntax designs this side of Perl, and the standard library is wildly inconsistent.
I really wish PHP would just die. Continuing to drag it along like the dead carcass it is wastes so much human effort. The longer it exists, the longer we have to support it.
Think of a simple landing page with a form to save data from a form and send out an email with confirmation.
In PHP you just need to add to your HTML page a few lines of PHP code and copy it using scp to any share server hosting that costs 4 dollars a year.
No "automation", no "cloud", no REST APIs, no WSGI/Gunicorn, etc. just plain Apache with mod_php enabled, which is available everywhere. I don't think anything can beat PHP productivity for such simple usecases.
Aren't there a zillion online services that provides that product out of the box, most likely for free, only requiring a browser and some monkey clicks around? -> No PHP, HTML or web server.
As someone who works with PHP reasonably often, I'd say you have a very limited view of what PHP is actually used for in 2020, if you think 3 hosted blog services will replace it.
The majority of PHP usages tend to be, frankly, unsophisticated Wordpress, WooCommerce, Magento, and Drupal sites that are hacked up to support e-commerce. These needs can now be met by a vast array of ecom and omnichannel platforms.
> Scripting and command line automation is executed better by Python and Ruby, which excel for writing Unix scripts and tools.
Python has a ridiculous time it needs to start up, it is not suited for any batch task that requires a lot of process creation.
> PHP has one of the most abhorrent language syntax designs this side of Perl and the standard library is wildly inconsistent.
At least it has a standard library that is both usable (in contrast to the JS ecosystem, remember left-pad?) and actually not that inconsistent if you have experience in developing C - most of what is described as "inconsistent" comes right from there.
And: the stdlib of PHP can easily be expanded upon by a rich variety of Composer libraries that can easily be deployed. Let's compare that to... Java, for example. Three popular dependency managers (and build tools): Ant, Maven, Gradle. Plus classpath worries if you're using Tomcat or other application servers which means you also have their libraries in the mix.
Changing code in production? In PHP it's as easy as changing the file using rsync and automatically all new incoming requests will use the new code, vs Java where you have to restart the server (which for large project means minutes of downtime).
> being able to ship a single binary, such as what Rust and Go can provide, is really nice
Unless you're distributing your binary to 3rd parties, why?
If you really don't want to deploy changes to e.g. a single/small number of controller or template files as independent file changes, build your PHP app into a .phar archive, and deploy that.
I don't specifically think PHP, when run (IMO) the best way it can be, is "easier to deploy" but I also don't think it's harder either.
I'm going to ignore your other comments because they're personal opinions and while you express them as facts, I realise you probably mean them as statements of opinion.
But the last part, I just don't understand:
> I really wish PHP would just die. Continuing to drag it along like the dead carcass it is wastes so much human effort. The longer it exists, the longer we have to support it.
Who is the "we" in this statement? You clearly don't like it personally, so why does it affect you, at all? I'm not a huge fan of Java, but I don't go around claiming that it should "die" or that humanity is somehow worse off because it exists.
There's no such thing as a client-side PHP application, so it doesn't even compare to e.g. genuine concern over tech choices that are 'forced' upon users of a website (e.g. Flash, SilverLight, ActiveX, javacript bloat, etc). If the backend part of the system does what it needs to do, the language/framework/runtime it's written in/with is meaningless.
At the same time, being able to install new or change existing software just by uploading some files to a cheap webhost is not to be dismissed as easily.
Most webhosts provide some kind of support for containers don’t they? Perhaps I’m completely missing the point here? I’ll readily admit that Im young enough to have used docker to deploy apps nearly everywhere I worked. Is php useful for ultra low cost websites? Is it low maintenance? Is that the appeal? Genuine question.
I don't think I even disagree with you here, but to use arguments for version control as your arguments for docker images and static binaries seems odd.
All three of the issues you raise would be solved by involving a VCS somewhere in your FTP deployment.
Incidentally, claiming that either option is "no more difficult" than FTP upload or even using VCS is either disingenuous or at least a little blinkered. FTP can work as simply as copying files between "folders", I've successfully taught my non-techy parents to use FTP. Setting up docker images or static binaries requires significantly more understanding of what's going on but of course provide speed, consistency and scalability benefits.
Many small businesses just want to get online, how does a container help them? Actually it doesn't.
Containers definitely has its place, but there hundred of thousands problems out there that needs to be solved for a low cost, otherwise it will never be solved, and a container will just increase that cost with little or no gain for the customer.
Scripting and command line automation is executed better by Python and Ruby, which excel for writing Unix scripts and tools.
I do not see what the use case for PHP is in 2020.
PHP has one of the most abhorrent language syntax designs this side of Perl, and the standard library is wildly inconsistent.
I really wish PHP would just die. Continuing to drag it along like the dead carcass it is wastes so much human effort. The longer it exists, the longer we have to support it.