Has the curiosity for web development with PHP reduced over time?

While surfing websites most of us notice a ‘php’ extension at the very end of the website link. PHP may be said to be an extremely popular language that developers use for web applications worldwide and commonly web applications constitute of its pages. There are many far superior development environments as well as languages that have been developed recently. However, people still prefer using PHP due to its simplicity. The easy development of the environment has made it attractive enough for people to lean towards it. But there are people who question about its future. Some feel that other more advanced development interfaces as well as languages will be replacing this software very soon. But there are many hardcore loyalists who think that no other language can replicate the simplicity of this language. To find out whether time has managed to reduce the curiosity of PHP web development we should take a look at the features, pros and cons of the language.

The server-side scripting language was created originally in 1995 by Rasmus Lerdorf. Later on other contributors entered the scene to create other versions that contained a lot of improvements. PHP means Hypertext Preprocessor and is free, open source software. Various platforms can be used for its running like Windows, UNIX and Linux. Almost all of today’s web-servers used are compatible with this language.

Advantages

Open source- Apache-style license is used for its distribution, allowing both non-commercial as well as commercial development and usage. Thus the usage is free; you do not have to pay license fees for CPU, machine, etc. In fact, it is being continuously improved as well as enhanced through a network of talented developers worldwide. Due to the availability of source code, bugs can be fixed or software customized according to your particular requirements.

Easily learned- The short cleaning curve ensures quick productivity of programmers. It can be freely mixed with HTML which appeals to HTML coders as well as web designers. Dynamic page generation feature may be added to the websites through this.

Community- A large base of developers along with users make it easy for you to find people who are fluent in PHP. There are several online resources which provide valuable support as well as information.

Multiplatform and database support- Extensive database support is provided by the software. It can support ONBC, PostgreSQL, MySQL, Microsoft SQL server, Sybase along with Oracle. It can also be run on several web servers as well as platforms. This allows standardization on universal development language across an environment that is heterogeneous. Solutions may be built on specific combinations and then migrated to different combinations.

Rapid development- Before the language gets executed it is compiled to a special bytecode format which is transparent to users as well as programmers. The page can be changed by the developers and immediate results can be seen in the browsers. In fact, code can executed in restricted environments as well which is preferred by many Application and ISP server providers as PHP can be offered to the clients but without having to compromise the security.

Extensions- There are many available source codes as well as extensions for everything like directory access along with XML manipulation. As a result, advanced applications can be put together quickly by leveraging this existing code.

Disadvantages

There are some disadvantages associated with the usage as well, like poor error handling quality. Other huge drawback is the security issue. Due to its open-sourced nature anybody can look at the source code and in case of bugs there, people may exploit this. Its non-modular nature makes it hard to maintain in case of large applications. Unwary programmers may be surprised by implicit conversion which can lead to development of unexpected bugs.

To ensure that the future of the programming language remains as bright as ever, the syntax needs to be cleaned up. In fact, as a whole, many facets must be improved. With time, there have been several improvements. The language is seeing a lot of updates with PHP 5.5 being currently released where a number of improvements have been introduced and bugs fixed. The language has ably grown to meet several challenges over time. There may be several languages developed but it remains a fact that it is an easy language. Creative and constructive implementations will ensure that it carries forward its legacy. You can get in touch with PHP development company India to get your software developed.

We provide PHP web development India services. If you would like to hire PHP developers, please get in touch with us at Mindfire Solutions.