Wednesday, January 5. 2005

TIOBE Software, maintainer of the TIOBE Programming Community Index has named PHP the Programming language of 2004. While I'm not surprised myself, I was very interested in hearing that while PHP has grown over 3% Java has dropped a relatively steep 6%. Admittingly the way this is measured isn't an absolute indication (it is based on figures taken from the major search engines: Google, MSN, and Yahoo!), I do think it serves as a valid barometer.

TIOBE credits the release of PHP 5 with PHP's surge in usage. While they don't draw the line between PHP's rise accounting for Java's drop, I do believe that has been a factor. In my work with Zend I have seen many companies now turning to PHP to solve their serious "mission critical" (I hate that phrase) problems, and thanks to the new object model PHP can now solve these problems using many of the same software engineering techniques Java brought to the table without the complexity of Java enterprise architecture. I know that makes my life easier, and I think it's that ability of PHP to develop scalable, hardened applications fast which makes it the powerhouse it has become today.

The best part about all of this, which is the part that really excites me, is that I can see PHP taking the web to all new places. With its ease of development and hot new technologies on the horizon (such as web services and XUL) which it can interact with I don't think it's a stretch at all that PHP will play a major role in the "Network Operating System" of the future myself and men such as Tim O'Reilly have been talking about over the years. It'll just take a little time to pull it all together, but it'll happen.