I have no php experience so I have absolutely zero conception of what the language used to be like, just what it looks like now. I can't help but see it as some kind of frankenlanguage put together with pieces of java/python/javascript and a ton of dollar signs.
In other words, it seems too similar to languages that I already know to be worth learning. Lisp was fun to learn because it is an alien language. C was worth learning because of its usability and centrality to modern computing. The only benefit I can see from learning php is being able to understand more of software history. Cool but I'd rather learn another lisp.
Does anyone disagree with my analysis? I wish the language well but I don't see what it offers me. Obviously it offers a lot to the people who see JS as franken-php and so forth.
In other words, it seems too similar to languages that I already know to be worth learning. Lisp was fun to learn because it is an alien language. C was worth learning because of its usability and centrality to modern computing. The only benefit I can see from learning php is being able to understand more of software history. Cool but I'd rather learn another lisp.
Does anyone disagree with my analysis? I wish the language well but I don't see what it offers me. Obviously it offers a lot to the people who see JS as franken-php and so forth.
Union types are cool though.