- mostly backwards compatible with easy upgrades, even between major versions
- many new features all the time for better static analysis, type safety, speed, succinct code, etc
- designed for use with Web
- PHP itself is a (good) templating langue, so no need to reinvent the wheel there
- FFI interface for integrating native code
- easy to learn
Some downsides though:
- Single threaded with typically blocking I/O and no built-in async paradigm means it’s like 1/1000 as fast as something like node for I/O heavy applications, even when using something like ReactPHP
- Need something like FPM to fire up one whole process per visitor
- Many core language features like OOP, type hints, lambdas, etc are a bolted-on afterthought and still only 60-90% there
- Still no typed resource handles until PHP 9+
- Syntax is cumbersome in many ways, though improving
- mostly backwards compatible with easy upgrades, even between major versions
- many new features all the time for better static analysis, type safety, speed, succinct code, etc
- designed for use with Web
- PHP itself is a (good) templating langue, so no need to reinvent the wheel there
- FFI interface for integrating native code
- easy to learn
Some downsides though:
- Single threaded with typically blocking I/O and no built-in async paradigm means it’s like 1/1000 as fast as something like node for I/O heavy applications, even when using something like ReactPHP
- Need something like FPM to fire up one whole process per visitor
- Many core language features like OOP, type hints, lambdas, etc are a bolted-on afterthought and still only 60-90% there
- Still no typed resource handles until PHP 9+
- Syntax is cumbersome in many ways, though improving