PHP 5.5 Beta Brings New Accelerator

[metala]

I'm wondering if Zend Optimizer+ is better than the XCache opcache extension...
When comes to fast web development PHP is my language of choice. I know that the language is inconsistent, but lately it is fixed bit by bit.

Note that language itself cannot be bad. But its usage in some scenarios can be favoured or discouraged.
I do use C, PHP, Perl, Python, Lua and Bash and lately C# with .NET.
Before I start writing the application/script I choose the language carefully.
I decide upon application size, scalability, performance, if it's web, if should be cross-platform, if app should embed DSL and many other factors.

I would like all developers to be language agnostic like me, but it seems that everyone favours some laguage and worships it...
The discussion above about Java and C# reminds me of: http://devopsreactions.tumblr.com/po...sing-java-vs-c

Add.

Aren't any companies contributing anything to PHP? (if they are, then if so then which?)

I'm not very informed, but it seems that Fabien Potencier and SensioLabs are the ones that contribute a lot to PHP.

[TheOne]

Most of the people that criticize PHP is maybe due for past experiences with old version years ago and not checking how the language has evolved having the facilities to code better and cleaner code. Also many systems out there like maybe wordpress?? didn't implemented the best programming techniques so people tend to condemn the language based on those known applications.

[Luke_Wolf]

Note that language itself cannot be bad. But its usage in some scenarios can be favoured or discouraged.
I do use C, PHP, Perl, Python, Lua and Bash and lately C# with .NET.
Before I start writing the application/script I choose the language carefully.
I decide upon application size, scalability, performance, if it's web, if should be cross-platform, if app should embed DSL and many other factors.

I would like all developers to be language agnostic like me, but it seems that everyone favours some laguage and worships it...
The discussion above about Java and C# reminds me of: http://devopsreactions.tumblr.com/po...sing-java-vs-c

I'm going to have to disagree with you on the point of languages being bad, because the way the language is designed is a reflection of the designers themselves, languages run the gamut of good, bad, and grey (like the people developing them they're usually grey). Megalomania (particularly as an excuse for laziness) is one of the prime factors for making a language bad and it's what separates Python from Java. Python says that "There's only One Right way to do things", essentially it's like they're a very strict but fair teacher, and I can't fault them for their design decisions even if I don't agree with them. Java on the other hand says "You will do what I say, how I say, when I say to do it now go in the corner and go stab yourself in the hand for 5 minutes" as well as "You want Feature X, no you're going to abuse my precious..... Gollum... Gollum", In short megalomaniacal control freaks who think you're going to abuse their dog/children. As such bad people it makes their language bad, this isn't to say it can't be rehabilitated but basically it's going to be like rehabilitating a child who was put under such abuse growing up... Good luck.

As far as favouring languages goes basically it comes down to two things (assuming the favouring is pure, and doesn't have things like bribery involved): Philosophy and Features.

For instance my personal preferences for an imperative language are that it is strongly and explicitly typed, has at least reasonable levels of built in Object Oriented design patterns, ignores whitespace, has overloadable operators, an explicit main procedure, and a design philosophy of supporting the programmer rather than trying to exert control over them (and note that I'm the kind of person who when I feel constrained I break out of the box and force it to do what I want anyway, and if someone who I don't respect the authority of tries to control me I toy with them doing things like using the letter against the intent).

If a language fulfills all of those I'm going to really like it, like C++ & C#, even though they have flaws. I'm willing to put up with languages that are missing certain features, but if it breaks my relatively lenient philosophy requirement then I'm going to hate it and I'll refuse to work with it. From there it's a matter of what fits the requirements, and I'm going to favour languages that fit my preferences over those that I'm just willing to work with. This favouring is actually a very good thing to do. Why? Well there's a simple reason for it: Productivity. If someone is doing something they enjoy doing they're going to go out of their way to make it as best as they can. If someone is doing something they don't care for or is indifferent to but are willing to do their work is going to be mediocre, it'll fit the bill but it won't go above and beyond. If someone hates what they're doing it'd be better if they were removed from the project because they're going to put out shit that meets only the bare minimum requirements.