> Regardless of their findings I wouldn't recommend anyone learn PHP if starting out.
This is bad advice.
If you are a new programmer starting out, first of all you should learn a few languages, not just one, but also, why would you not want to learn one of the most popular and prolific languages in the industry you are trying to enter?
If you want to work in the web world, not knowing PHP will close lots of potential doors. They may not be the coolest of the cool but not everyone has the luxury of being that picky when looking for work.
Of course if you are an exceptional developer and/or you live in one of the insular startup hubs (SF, NYC, etc), then you can get away with being picky and sticking to the bleeding edge or the du-jour tech stacks and you'll probably get hired, but for the majority of people entering the web development world, that may not be the case, and they should be more pragmatic.
Even if you don't specialize or focus on PHP, knowing how to code in it will help you land jobs and advance your career.
> If you want to work in the web world, not knowing PHP will close lots of potential doors.
Not knowing language X will obviously close doors but by learning language Y instead will open others. Insert whatever language you like.
I wouldn't recommend it to someone starting out because it's use is in a limited context. You could do scripting outside of a webserver in PHP but it's not done often. Since there are mature ecosystems for other languages that are also used inside and outside the webserver I'd recommend something along those lines. In my experience developers who develop systems and can learn and understand the varying pieces have more options than someone who is a PHP or Java or whatever context limited developer. Because of that I'd recommend a more versatile language and ecosystem when starting out.
But of course do what you like. I'm not trying to bad mouth PHP. I just don't think it's the best option for someone new to the field as it would limit them to a specific context.
This is bad advice.
If you are a new programmer starting out, first of all you should learn a few languages, not just one, but also, why would you not want to learn one of the most popular and prolific languages in the industry you are trying to enter?
If you want to work in the web world, not knowing PHP will close lots of potential doors. They may not be the coolest of the cool but not everyone has the luxury of being that picky when looking for work.
Of course if you are an exceptional developer and/or you live in one of the insular startup hubs (SF, NYC, etc), then you can get away with being picky and sticking to the bleeding edge or the du-jour tech stacks and you'll probably get hired, but for the majority of people entering the web development world, that may not be the case, and they should be more pragmatic.
Even if you don't specialize or focus on PHP, knowing how to code in it will help you land jobs and advance your career.