On Jun 16, 2007, at 3:38 PM, John Smith wrote:
>
> guys,
> love both tools but php @ 2.5 *billion* google results is far more
> popular than postgresql @ 25 million google results. *if* somebody's
> gotto adapt it's not php. php does what it does best in a way that
> stuffy academics don't get.
I would oppose the notion that someone needs to adapt to meet a
lowest common denominator. That's a willing sacrifice of yourself.
I've been around a lot of different languages to different levels of
involvement and have formed a theory that hasn't been disputed in 5
years.
Popular languages have nothing to do with how good they are.
They have to do with the lower entry barrier.
Examples:
Java developers are crawling out of the woodwork. That's because I
can go to the local community college and get a couple classes done.
Run over to some training company like New Horizons, and walk away
with a Java Certified Programmer paper in a month. Now I can walk
into a company and say, "I'm a Java developer, see!". Unfortunately
they also think Java is the only language anything can be programmed in.
Similarly the MCSE (Must Consult Someone Else) is a easy piece of
paper to obtain that says you are Software Engineer. I took the
tests 8 years ago, they're crap.
MySQL is insanely easy to set up. But there are a lot of MySQL users
who really don't understand the concept of a database and tend to
treat it like a flat file or spreadsheet.
I got in a shouting match at a Rails conference because they didn't
see why you should put things like UNIQUE indexes or Referential
Integrity in their database since they have the Rails functions
of .exists? and .unique? (or something like that...) Easy to use,
but it requires smarts to use it well.
Contrary to these examples:
Perl programmers who actually do this for a period of time tend to be
extremely good at general programming concepts. Perl has a high
entry barrier. There is a LOT to learn before you can do much of
significance. Few of them are the "idiots" that the other fast track
certification languages can provide. It's certification by war stories.
C/C++ programmers who do this beyond their BSCSE courses are the same
way. They know their stuff and can be trusted to do it well. Again,
not a low barrier language.
It is my opinion that MySQL and PHP both fall into the category of
low entry barrier applications. They are easy to set up, easy to get
"hello world" and you can find lots of company supported training
programs. But this has nothing to do with a language/application
being good or safe.
But at the same time, I think the communities do not suffer from
having higher entry barriers to them. If everything was as popular
as Windows then there would be a lot of AOL addresses signed up on
this list, something I'm OK with not having.