A WORLD WITHOUT PHP@BENMARKS • #SUNPHP17• MIAMI, FL • 04 FEB 2017

(SCENE: SWITZERLAND, 2015.)

Mmm, fondue.How did I gethere?

(SCENE: WEB DEV, 1996)

Credit: Jud Dagnallhttps://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

“I WAS LURKING ONE DAY ON USENET PERL FORUMS WHEN I SAW AN ANNOUNCEMENT ABOUT THE RELEASE OF PHP 2.0/FI,

THE FIRST TRULY PUBLIC VERSION OF PHP. I WAS GROWING WEARY OF TRYING TO GET PERL WORKING VIA CGI AND FELL IN

LOVE IMMEDIATELY WITH HOW SIMPLE AND FAULT-TOLERANT MOD_PHP WITH APACHE WAS COMPARED TO CGI HELL.”

IN 1996, THEY DIDN'T HAVE SITES LIKE REDDIT [OR] GOOGLE WHEN I FIRST LEARNED PHP... PHP.NET'S SEARCH FUNCTIONALITY BARELY WORKED. I DON'T REMEMBER… ANY REAL DOCUMENTATION UNTIL AFTER PHP 4 CAME OUT IN MID-2000.

THERE WASN'T A SINGLE PHP IDE FOR ABOUT 5 YEARS, AND PHP DID NOT HAVE DEBUGGING SUPPORT AT ALL.

- /u/hopeseekr (reddit)https://www.reddit.com/r/PHP/comments/whc4r/history_lesson_what_php_coding_was_like_in_1996/

THIS IS WHAT DYNAMIC WEB DEV LOOKED LIKE FOR A LOT OF US IN THE MID- TO

LATE 90S.

EVEN IN THE LATE NINETIES, WEB DEV WASN’T A MONOGLOT PURSUIT:

http://royal.pingdom.com/2007/12/07/a-history-of-the-dynamic-web/

(SCENE: TWITTER, 2016.)

PHP: Old enough to drink in the

USA!

“IF I DIDN’T START IT, SOMEONE WOULD HAVE.”

- Rasmus Lerdorf, 2016

“WHAT IF ‘THEY’ DIDN’T? WHAT IF NO ONE DID?”

- Me, 2016

WITHOUT PHP…WHAT HAPPENS TO THE WEB?

WITHOUT PHP…WHAT HAPPENS TO US?

(SCENE: CA. 2004, 2 YEARS POST-DOTCOM BOMB)

BY THIS POINT ON THE NORMAL TIMELINE:

…FUTURE KEYNOTIANS HAVE DISCOVERED PROGRAMMING…

…THERE HAD BEEN ~60,000 INTERNALS MESSAGES…

…THE PHP-FI PARSER HAD BEEN REPLACED TWICE OVER BY ZEEV ZURASKI AND ANDI

GUTMANS…

…AND PHP REACHED VERSION 4, WHILE GROWING A CLIMATE OF CONTRIBUTORS

AND SPAWNING MANY LARGE COMMUNITY PROJECTS:

Credit: Nohathttps://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

(BUT NONE OF THIS HAPPENED, REMEMBER?)

ALL OF THESE WARES AND ALL OF THEIR COMMUNITIES NEVER EXISTED.

SO. WHAT’S THE BEST SOURCE OF INFORMATION TO FIGURE OUT AN

ALTERNATE HISTORY?

NOPE, NO WIKIPEDIA.

WIKIPEDIA RUNS WIKIMEDIA…

A PHP PROJECT.

Credit: Nohathttps://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

THAT’S RIGHT, THE SIXTH MOST-USED WEBSITE IN 2016 FOUNDED IN 2001 &

RELIES ON PHP.

WELL, NO MATTER. WE’LL CHECK…

ERR, WELL, MUCH OF YAHOO! TECH ISPHP-BASED.

OKAY THEN, WE’LL JUST CHECK OTHER SEARCH ENGINE RESULTS.

HMM.

THINK ABOUT ALL OF THE CONTENT WHICH DOESN’T EXIST:

http://www.php.net/usage.php

BETTER GO POST ABOUT THIS ON…

(YEP, NO FACEBOOK.)

OF COURSE, I’M OUT OF TIME TO POST. I’LL DO THAT AFTER MY BARTENDING SHIFT…

…WHICH I STILL HAVE BECAUSE I’M NOT PART OF THE $100B IN PHP-ENABLED DIGITAL COMMERCE WHICH EXISTS IN

ANOTHER TIMELINE.

WOULD ANY OF THESE LANGUAGES HAVE TAKEN ON THE ROLE OF PHP?

WOULD THE HOLE LEFT BY PHP’S ABSENCE HAVE BEEN FILLED?

GETTING A PICTURE OF THE CAPACITY OF THESE TECHNOLOGIES OVER TIME IS DIFFICULT.

SO, TIME FOR SOME INFORMED CONJECTURE.

http://www.tiobe.com/tiobe-index/

http://pypl.github.io/PYPL.html

http://pypl.github.io/PYPL.html

http://pypl.github.io/PYPL.html

http://pypl.github.io/PYPL.html

http://pypl.github.io/PYPL.html

WHAT DO THESE STATISTICS SHOW?

OBJECTIVE DATA ON THIS SUBJECT IS HARD TO COME BY.

THE PREVIOUS GRAPHS ARE OF INDIRECT DATA.

BUT THEY DEMONSTRATE SHIFTS OVER TIME, SHIFTS WHICH DIFFER IN DIFFERENT

LOCATIONS.

REPRESENTATIVE DATA IS MUCH EASIER TO COME BY IN RECENT YEARS:

THERE’S A CLEAR MOVE TOWARDS JAVASCRIPT… NOW.

THE EVOLUTION OF JS DOESN’T PROVIDE FOR A GOOD SUBSTITUTE FOR PHP.

BUT ANOTHER PROJECT DOES: PYTHON

✓ SOLE CREATOR / BDFL (GUIDO VAN ROSSUM) ✓ OPEN SOURCE ✓ MID-90’S START ✓ CORPORATE SPONSOR (ZOPE) ✓ STANDARD LIBRARY ✓ PACKAGE REPOSITORY ✓ PERSISTENT INTEREST FOR 20+ YEARS ✓ COMMUNITY-ORIENTED

✓ COMMUNITY-ORIENTED

COMMUNITY IS KEY.

IT’S NOT THE ONLY THING, BUT IT IS IMPORTANT.

A STRONG COMMUNITY CAN DRIVE A GOOD LANGUAGE FORWARD, CREATING MARKETS.

WE’VE SEEN THIS WITH FRAMEWORKS IN VARIOUS LANGUAGES AS WELL.

THERE’S SOMETHING ABOUT PHP’S ABILITY TO ENABLE GREAT DEVELOPERS TO DO

GREAT THINGS…

…EVEN GREAT DEVELOPERS WHO DON’T YET KNOW THEY ARE GREAT.

FROM THE RISE OF EZ PUBLISHER, WORDPRESS, PRADO…

…TO THE RISE OF SYMFONY, DRUPAL, ZEND FRAMEWORK, LARAVEL, MAGENTO,

AND SO MANY OTHER FRAMEWORKS…

…THE CONSTANT IS HUMAN INTERACTION, ENABLED AROUND A LANGUAGE BUILT BY

HUMAN INTERACTION.

CURRENTLY WE INTERACT THROUGH COMPOSER, WITH THE BENEFIT OF PSRS

FROM FIG.

FIG WAS HAVING A FUN GO OF THINGS RECENTLY. BUT I’M NOT WORRIED. THINGS

WORKED OUT AS THEY SHOULD.

TECH ALONE DOESN’T MAKE THE MARKET, AND CERTAINLY DOESN’T ENSURE GROWTH

AND LONGEVITY.

COMMUNITY DOES.

OUR LIVES, OUR CAREERS, OUR PRESENCE HERE IS PROOF OF THAT.

I HAVE A PIE CHART THAT PROVES IT.

PEOPLE IN THIS ROOM WHO…

…are a part of the PHP community

…aren’t a part of the PHP community

CELEBRATE THIS. HONOR THIS. LEARN SOMETHING TODAY, TEACH SOMEONE TODAY.

THE FUTURE OF PHP DEPENDS ON IT.

@BENMARKS / BEN@MAGENTO.COM