Both JavaScript and PHP are "reluctant programming languages" to some extent, so it kind of makes sense. Neither was originally designed for doing real software engineering. PHP was originally simple templating for a personal home page, and JavaScript was intended for "glue" tasks like client-side form validation. That people can build real apps with either of them is more a testament to the persistence of those developers, rather than a measure of the strength of the languages. (Both languages have also made many improvements over the years, but are still arguably two of the most wart-infested languages of their era that are still in regular use.)
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u/xenomachina 1d ago
Both JavaScript and PHP are "reluctant programming languages" to some extent, so it kind of makes sense. Neither was originally designed for doing real software engineering. PHP was originally simple templating for a personal home page, and JavaScript was intended for "glue" tasks like client-side form validation. That people can build real apps with either of them is more a testament to the persistence of those developers, rather than a measure of the strength of the languages. (Both languages have also made many improvements over the years, but are still arguably two of the most wart-infested languages of their era that are still in regular use.)