My Top 9 Reasons Why I Use PHP

Here are the top 9 reasons why I use PHP:

1. Ease of Use

As stated above, this language has proven to many, to be very easy to learn, very straight-forward. The language rules are not as strict as many common languages of nowadays, such as C++, Java, etc. Any newcomer to the world of PHP will get the hang of this language very quickly on my opinion.

2. Integrates with HTML, CSS, JavaScript, Ajax, JQuery Very Well

When speaking of web development, there is no need to create workarounds to be able to display an HTML page when using PHP. All you have to do is place the HTML, CSS, js, etc… within the file and you are good to go.

3. Well Documented

Nothing is complete if it lacks documentation. This language contains its full manual online, and is accessible to everyone in need of it. You need to learn something you have never done before? Just Google it and you will definitely find some crazy person that already went through the hassle for you, and is willing to help you out at the same time.

4. Great Community

Our communities are huge! The people have supported this language from the very start. Versed in every aspect, you can see how people strive to get more out of this simple language (yet powerful). This being open source has the advantage that everyone can take a glance at it. That being said, with more exposure, the more opportunity this has of growing. Believe me, this has grown since the beginning, and it will keep growing.

5. Updated Regularly (Security, etc. Solid Platform)

Great technology needs to be updated constantly. The team at PHP.NET have done a tremendous job in keeping their language up to date with all the bugs that have been found so far. Also, adding new features every once in a while to make our lives as programmers a bit much easier.

6. Database Communication is Excellent

PHP is known to have a variety of database support. It has enough flavors to satisfy most individual needs. Here I found a list of supported databases so far. I’m not sure how accurate it is, but it's good enough.

http://phplens.com/adodb/supported.databases.html

7. Trend, A Lot of People Use It (Widely Used, For Open Source Projects like WP, Joomla, PHPBB, etc.)

This language has become very trendy. A lot of web developers prefer using PHP. (Note: I said a lot prefer, not all.) If you decide to start a new career path using PHP, then you will most certainly have a place to go. The job market is stacking with PHP developer roles, and PHP leads, etc. This is an actual fact, due to the reports from craigslist, stating that the job growth for PHP web developer has increased within the past year. Also, there are a lot of open source projects like WordPress, Joomla, Drupal to mention a few, and companies are using these more and more each day.

8. Usability

One of the best things is that applications done within PHP are cross platform. They are independently run on a server, and it doesn’t matter what type of Operating system you are using, it is likely to run. In some cases, you will just need to add a few conditions and manipulate the design a little bit, but having to create a new one from scratch, just because there is no compatibility, negatory!

9. Best Of All, It's Free!

You definitely can’t go wrong with FREE! You know the old saying, “If it’s free, it’s for me!”. Some people prefer to pay for some web server that will cost thousands of dollars to maintain up to date. Not with PHP though, you can install a free operating system (linux, unix), that is also very well documented, and have PHP installed in it, configured, and maintainable for much lower cost than any other type of OS.

So tell me, and feel free to comment below, on what motivates you to use PHP for web development?

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