No matter which way you cut it, PHP is pretty amazing: a language strung together by volunteer programmers that today has the enviable distinction of being in use on more than a third of the planet’s Web servers. Flexible, scalable, extensible, stable, open—PHP is all of these and more, which is why it’s one of the most popular programming toolkits in the world.

Ask me why I like PHP, though, and my reason has nothing to do with any of the preceding buzzwords and everything to do with how friendly and nonthreatening the language is. There’s no tortuous syntax or obfuscated code in the average PHP script: instead, it’s clear, understandable, and easy to read, and this makes both programming and debugging with it a pleasure. This is no small achievement: a shorter learning curve makes it easier for novice programmers to quickly begin “doing something useful” with the language, and increases both user interest and adoption levels. This isn’t just good design: it’s smart marketing as well!

As an open-source project, PHP is completely free, and supported by a worldwide community of volunteers. This open-source, community-driven approach has produced a platform that is significantly more robust and error-free than many commercial alternatives. So using PHP is also good economics for organizations: it allows them to save on licensing fees and expensive server hardware, while simultaneously producing higher-quality products in shorter time frames.