Yet another PHP 20 blog…
20 years ago, Rasmus Lerdorf announced a new tool called PHP.
My first encounter with PHP was in 2004, eager to make my HTML pages more dynamic. Somebody recommended PHP because it was very easy to use.
Because the installation seemed pretty complicated, I’ve used PHP Triad. In a few minutes I was ready to begin my experiments and I was fascinated by the instant feedback.
Back then, I was a student and my courses were based on Pascal and C/C++. I didn’t like Pascal because it was already outdated and C had a very complicated memory management system and instead of concentrating on the logical thinking I had to focus on allocating resources.
This new language, to me, had a syntax similar to C, but without the headache of resource management. Eliminating this impediment, I got to develop my logical thinking and even to become a better overall programmer, not only in PHP.
In that period, PHP wasn’t considered by many a “serious” programming language, more like one for beginners. At one of my first interviews, the employer told me on a nagging tone: “PHP is a toy, join us and you’ll learn real programming and something serious, like FoxPro!”. That was one of the moments that made me decide to become a PHP programmer.
11 years later, I can still say that PHP is the language closest to my heart, and I probably wouldn’t have had a career as a programmer without it.
What was your first interaction with PHP?