Is it time to jump ship from PHP to something like Java?
<p>Used to really like PHP but I am starting to think it isn't worth continuing down the path and should I move towards Java. I worked in both environments and seem to see very different cultures. I come from a perl background and unfortunately perl jobs seem to have diminished. </p>

<p>PHP Negatives</p>

<ol>
<li><p>PHP seems to be lacking compared to perl, to me it has always felt like perl lite. It's fine to front end stuff but it very weak in the backend.</p></li>
<li><p>PHP seems to try to be JAVA lite. PHP will never be truly OO like Java that's not a big deal but a language should not remember it roots and the reason it was written in the first place.</p></li>
<li><p>This is the big on for me that really turns me off. Most of the programmers I met in PHP seem to be lacking basic software design skill. They seem to have a thing that process and upfront design is a waste of time and want to be one man shows. When you try and get some formal design process you end up with them claiming you have no clue on how to program. Personally unplanned code is what ends up being unmaintainable. I am personally sick of ending up having to go back and fix a lot bad code which can take twice as long because they think clever then have logic that actually works.  </p></li>
<li><p>PHP seems to pay way less then other languages. I end up being a high paid developer when in perl or Java I can easily make 10-15k more a year.</p></li>
<li><p>Frameworks in PHP like to maintain there own independent libraries. I personally liked the idea of pear since it was like cpan. Some frameworks like Cake are really horribly coded. It actually will add things to your code like and 's' in functions anything that likes to do magic and not let the developer know what is going on is crap. my experience with php frameworks is for small projects they work but there really not flexible. The best php framework is ZEND by far but compared to something like SPRING in Java and you start seeing issues.</p></li>
</ol>

<p>PHP is at least simple to use and if you have a small site with a simple database connection it makes a lot sense. </p>

<p>On the other hand Java seems to make a lot of sense.</p>

<p>1 Very Flexible and powerful you can use it on almost any platform including things like android.</p>

<ol>
<li><p>Tons of libraries you can do almost anything with it.</p></li>
<li><p>Programmers are much more open to planning up front. I also found them to be much more professional and overall better programmers.</p></li>
</ol>

<p>4 Java has always been OO so it doesn't feel strange.</p>

<ol>
<li>Pay for Java programmers is much better then almost anything else.</li>
</ol>

<p>Things I don't like about Java</p>

<p>1 sometimes it can be a little overly complex </p>

<ol>
<li>Programmers tend to rely on an IDE too much so they tend to not want to know how things work.</li>
</ol>

<p>Overall though it does seem Java has a better future then PHP.</p>
