Honestly if I'm doing quick dirty prototyping I want to have as many tools provided for me as possible. I probably won't use most of them, but spinning up a quick Laravel project gives me built-in shortcuts for stuff that's just annoying to do in plain PHP. Sure there are conventions that say you should separate your code into different files, but if you want to you can just shove all of your code into the route files and ignore everything else.
I distribute server-side software and it was a pain to provide the infra requirements. At higher level users easily miss what is yours and what's another tech, they just don't care to tell the difference. Is not a matter of documenting, is just not their concern.
That drives many issues and it becomes a snowball soon as inexperienced users start to vent bad practices. In a effort to help other users they often spread more damage.
With Docker I was able to take charge of the infra, which erased all the uncertainties on my next layer but it spawned the uncomfortable need of learning Docker to use my stuff, which users took very reluctant.
The best distribution method is to pack a binary release. Not only the package is lightweight, it doesn't need any fancy instruction. You can keep Docker for your internal use, don't ship it to end users.
For PHP there's the option of binary distribution using php-micro, sadly not all devs are into it as "just brew". They don't realize that the end user isn't a PHP dev and that having to install the runtime is an annoying step.
I've been using PHP for about 19 years and what I can tell is that both the language and its community have evolved the right way. Writing modern PHP is a joy, IDE support is great and we have tools for everything.
Modern PHP is about community standards, not about any particular framework and exposing Laravel as the best way to get started with PHP is questionable. I wouldn't recommend it to anyone wanting to learn (real) PHP.
The article praises PHP but it is sad that doesn't link to any other resource or project which ditches the value of PHP community.
Laravel is great for RAD which is attractive for small projects. The kind of stuff "business with 500K orders runs on a $6 VPS" thing. For clients wanting a robust software system you can use a better tool.
The only bad part of the PHP community is the people that have never done anything else other than WordPress. The shittiest more careless horrible and bad practices riddled codebases I’ve seen in my life come from WordPress developers. It has nothing to do with the language though, it’s just that part of the ecosystem which I think is what drives all the negativity and looking down towards PHP.
Laravel only seems to be for small stuff like
- the backends of Apples Webapps
- spiegel.de, the biggest German news site
- the New York Times website
- backend services at Disney
- About You (large online retailer)
Seriously, though, I myself work for an enterprise that runs big parts of the European energy grid and we use Laravel for all sorts of stuff. At a previous job Laravel powered a whole ISP.
Notice when people say Laravel is good for small stuff and early prototypes, they never explain why.
