On PHPClasses.org today there's a new post from Manuel Lemos suggesting that one of the main reasons why PHP is popular is because of WordPress, not the frameworks that have been built with it.

Recently the Tiobe Index of published an update of their programming language index on which they claim PHP has been raising in popularity due to Zend Framework 2 but they do not justify why. Read this article to learn about an opinion why this claim is unfounded and PHP popularity has more to do with WordPress than with PHP at one language may be more popular than PHP Frameworks.

In the post he talks some about the TIOBE index, how it ranks popularity and where PHP currently sits on the list. He then lists out seven reasons why he thinks that WordPress made PHP as popular as it is including:

• WordPress is the Most Popular PHP Application
• WordPress alone is much more popular than any PHP framework
• The Extensible WordPress plugin ecosystem
• Non-Programmers develop in PHP just because of WordPress

He also suggests that the popularity of WordPress stems from it solving a more pragmatic problem than PHP frameworks

According to this new post on the Pixelstech site, PHP is "making a comeback" with an increase in popularity since it was last measured on the TIOBE index.

TIOBE released the programming language index for July 2013. The highlight of this month is that PHP is coming back. It ranks the fifth and has an increase of 1.54% compared to January. There are no changes in the ranking for the top 4 languages. The reason why PHP is back may be attributed to the new PHP Zend Framework that was released in September 2012, but this reason is not very convincing.

The post includes the list of the top twenty languages ordered by popularity with C, Java, Objective-C and C++ coming in at the four spots above PHP now.

Adam Culp has posted his own look at some of the PHP usage statistics that are out there and how they can be interpreted.

Every once in awhile I stumble across someone who is trying to find their way and decide what they will do in their career. As the organizer of a PHP user group I see many new developers passing through. Of course I always speak of how strong PHP is in the web markets, and encourage new web developers to pursue PHP as a tool in their box of goodies. Because as a web developer it would be a career limiting move to not have any knowledge of PHP. Here is why...

He shares a few different sources including w3tech's overall and PHP-specific information (PHP5 specific here) and the current results of the TIOBE index showing language popularity. For each he talks some about what the results mean (and don't mean) and how, if you're a "professional developer" you should, at the least, know PHP - the most dominant language in the web space.

Kevin Schroeder has some of his own thoughts on the recent results of the TIOBE index ranking the popularity of programming languages. PHP has slopped down two spots, replaced by Python and C++. He looks at the data TIOBE has to back it up and can't seem to find a reason why.

I decided to take a look and see what was going on behind the scenes by reading on the index definition to see if I could understand what happened. After reading through the definition I still don't know what happened, or even why it happened.

He goes through how the index data is created - search results from the top 6 hits in Alexa for each language result - and how he, basically, found nothing out of the ordinary. He points out that, because of inconsistencies like this, the TIOBE index shouldn't be regarded as much more than a loose guide. Since it's based on hard-coded search strings, it'll never be a true judge of "popularity" overall.

On the IBuildings bog today Ivo Jansch looks at a new step in PHP's evolution - its jump up into the top three on the TIOBE programming index (language popularity):

In their latest analysis PHP has entered the top 3 of most popular programming languages, and that is something that both makes us proud and provides further proof that PHP is still growing and here to stay. [...] What makes PHP's number 3 position remarkable is that the numbers 1 and 2 are very much general purpose languages. Java and C are pretty much used from anywhere from low level processes to desktop applications.

Some of the other languages in their top ten (according to their indexing tools) include Perl, Python, Ruby and Javascript.

According to the latest results for the TIOBE community index, PHP has made it into the top three in the monthly-updated list of programming language popularity.

The TIOBE Programming Community index gives an indication of the popularity of programming languages. The index is updated once a month. The ratings are based on the number of skilled engineers world-wide, courses and third party vendors. [...] PHP enters top 3 for the first time.

PHP pushed ahead of now number four on the list, C++, with an almost one percent gain jumping up from number five on the previous month's list. The post includes graphs showing the trends and a link to the definition of the reports.

As mentioned by the International PHP Magazine, PHP has held strong at its fourth place ranking on the TIOBE Programming Community Index for the month of May.

The TIOBE Programming Community index gives an indication of the popularity of programming languages. The index is updated once a month. The ratings are based on the world-wide availability of skilled engineers, courses and third party vendors. The popular search engines Google, MSN, and Yahoo! are used to calculate the ratings. Observe that the TIOBE index is not about the best programming language or the language in which most lines of code have been written.

PHP kept its ranking right alongside other popular languages like C++, Java and Perl to remain in the top five of the list. Their graph still shows a downward trend for the presence of PHP on the web, but it's the same trend that can be seen affecting several other languages as well.

As mentioned by the International PHP Magazine, PHP has held strong at its fourth place ranking on the TIOBE Programming Community Index for the month of May.

The TIOBE Programming Community index gives an indication of the popularity of programming languages. The index is updated once a month. The ratings are based on the world-wide availability of skilled engineers, courses and third party vendors. The popular search engines Google, MSN, and Yahoo! are used to calculate the ratings. Observe that the TIOBE index is not about the best programming language or the language in which most lines of code have been written.

PHP kept its ranking right alongside other popular languages like C++, Java and Perl to remain in the top five of the list. Their graph still shows a downward trend for the presence of PHP on the web, but it's the same trend that can be seen affecting several other languages as well.

As reported by the International PHP Magazine website, the results of the latest TIOBE Programming Community Index are in for the month and PHP is on the rise.

PHP has moved back up to take its spot back at #4 with (Visual) Basic falling back down to #5. As the trends graph shows, PHP had a sharp spike back up to overtake VB starting with the new year. If it continues the climb, it could be back up to levels it was during the middle of last year.

The TIOBE Programming Community index gives an indication of the popularity of programming languages. The index is updated once a month. The ratings are based on the worldwide availability of skilled engineers, courses and third party vendors.

As reported by the International PHP Magazine website, the results of the latest TIOBE Programming Community Index are in for the month and PHP is on the rise.

PHP has moved back up to take its spot back at #4 with (Visual) Basic falling back down to #5. As the trends graph shows, PHP had a sharp spike back up to overtake VB starting with the new year. If it continues the climb, it could be back up to levels it was during the middle of last year.

The TIOBE Programming Community index gives an indication of the popularity of programming languages. The index is updated once a month. The ratings are based on the worldwide availability of skilled engineers, courses and third party vendors.