Taking PHP Seriously

Explore a thought-provoking conference talk that challenges conventional wisdom about PHP programming language. Delve into the unusual design choices of PHP in programmer workflow, concurrency, and shared state, and discover how these decisions have contributed to the success of major projects like Facebook, WordPress, and MediaWiki. Learn about the language's strengths that have made it dominant in its niche, and gain insights applicable to other programming environments. Examine Facebook's efforts to address inconsistencies in PHP while maintaining its core strengths. Presented by Keith Adams, a Virtual Machinist at Facebook and key contributor to HHVM, this 41-minute talk from the 2013 Strange Loop Conference offers a fresh perspective on PHP's role in modern web development and its impact on developer efficiency and bug reduction.

Introduction
Why PHP
PHP Updates
PHP Criticism
Objective Reality
Criticism of PHP
Value reference semantics
Reference counting
Inconsistent library
Unforced errors
Three important things
Programmer workflow
State
Concurrency
PHP is an emergent property
PHP is not happy with Java
Type systems
Hack
Workflow
Cheat Sheet
Type Inference
Type Check
Language Checklist
Competitive Position
Dynamic Algo Languages
Shoutouts
Question mark ends
HVM