In his latest blog entry, Robert Peake looks at something that PHP is certainly susceptible to, given that other languages like JSP, ASP, and Ruby are always being compared to it - the popularity of the language. Robert asks "Does Popularity Matter?"

Nexen recently posted a great survey on PHP usage (perhaps they beat NetCraft to the punch this time?). We've seen these trends before: PHP is on the steady rise for numbers of installations. Coupled with Apache, it is the most popular web development platform around.

My question is: does that really matter?

By "matter" I mean, "does it affect PHP's credibility in a positive way?"; and also: "does it prove anything?"

He wonders if the numbers that show on the surveys are PHP usage because people want to use it, or if it's simply that it's preinstalled in so many places these days (and has a low "barrier to entry") that it's being mistaken for popularity. He also mentions something that I think we all, as PHP developers and ambassadors, should think about:

So, rather than the community resting on its collective laurels for one more year of increased installations, I encourage us all to consider what can be done to promote PHP through education, standards, and best practices to its rightful place as much, much more than simply a popular web development language.

In his latest blog entry, Robert Peake looks at something that PHP is certainly susceptible to, given that other languages like JSP, ASP, and Ruby are always being compared to it - the popularity of the language. Robert asks "Does Popularity Matter?"

Nexen recently posted a great survey on PHP usage (perhaps they beat NetCraft to the punch this time?). We've seen these trends before: PHP is on the steady rise for numbers of installations. Coupled with Apache, it is the most popular web development platform around.

My question is: does that really matter?

By "matter" I mean, "does it affect PHP's credibility in a positive way?"; and also: "does it prove anything?"

He wonders if the numbers that show on the surveys are PHP usage because people want to use it, or if it's simply that it's preinstalled in so many places these days (and has a low "barrier to entry") that it's being mistaken for popularity. He also mentions something that I think we all, as PHP developers and ambassadors, should think about:

So, rather than the community resting on its collective laurels for one more year of increased installations, I encourage us all to consider what can be done to promote PHP through education, standards, and best practices to its rightful place as much, much more than simply a popular web development language.

In this new entry from Marco Tabini today, there's his look at some community etquette that he would suggest all can use on the internet these days - no matter what language/projects/software you're working with.

I hate documents about netiquette. No matter how many I read, they always sound elitist and designed with the sole goal of worrying about form over content. Tenets like “don’t ask to ask, just ask” and “thou shall set up mailing lists so that the Reply-to header goes to the sender of a particular message” annoy me to no end for one reason: they do nothing—absolutely nothing—to further the ultimate goal of every community: to inform and to help. All they do is to punish the newcomer not because he or she doesn’t have anything useful to contribute, but because they are not aware of a set of arbitrary rules that set the “veterans” apart.

He continues on talking about how arbitrary "netequette" really is, but, despite that, that there are still a certain set of base standards that any and every 'net user should consider. His list is as follows:

• Respect others
• Post where posts belong
• Ask only as a last resort
• Verbosity beats lack of information any day
• Answer only if you have something to add

In this new entry from Marco Tabini today, there's his look at some community etquette that he would suggest all can use on the internet these days - no matter what language/projects/software you're working with.

I hate documents about netiquette. No matter how many I read, they always sound elitist and designed with the sole goal of worrying about form over content. Tenets like “don’t ask to ask, just ask” and “thou shall set up mailing lists so that the Reply-to header goes to the sender of a particular message” annoy me to no end for one reason: they do nothing—absolutely nothing—to further the ultimate goal of every community: to inform and to help. All they do is to punish the newcomer not because he or she doesn’t have anything useful to contribute, but because they are not aware of a set of arbitrary rules that set the “veterans” apart.

He continues on talking about how arbitrary "netequette" really is, but, despite that, that there are still a certain set of base standards that any and every 'net user should consider. His list is as follows:

• Respect others
• Post where posts belong
• Ask only as a last resort
• Verbosity beats lack of information any day
• Answer only if you have something to add