Which other languages besides php do you know well? I'm asking this because of your outlandish claim that php is fantastic.
Also the rest of your comment seems highly defensive. You seem to imply that people who agree with you must be senior, while people who disagree must be junior or even worse, something in between. It sounds like you have been bitten by discussion where facts against your conviction were presented, and you were unable to factor that into your views. Am I at all close or completely off the target?
After years of working with PHP, my take away was similar to C++: There's a great language in there, somewhere. Limit yourself to a subset of the language which is sane, follow all of the PSR standards, and the result is quite nice.
After all of that, you look at your coworkers' code and realize they either (1) picked a different subset than you did, or (2) PHP is their first language and they have no idea what they're doing.
I mostly stay away from web development now, but if I were to do a new web project, I might still choose PHP if I knew I'd be working with a small, experienced team. It's a highly productive language.
This is why I think dev needs way stronger hierarchy. The typical flat hierarchies are trash for maintaining long term quality code and thus productivity.
All juniors should have to PR everything through seniors. All mids should have to PR at least a portion to seniors. All seniors should be vetted by the best dev the business can afford. That's the age old master-journeyman-apprentice structure, tried and tested.
At my firm, attempting to weasel out of that mentorship responsibility, such as seniors just clicking through trash PRs, or much much worse: trying to falsely automate it with git hook stuff, gets a "are you asking me to put you on a performance improvement plan?".
I get the impression he/she is saying that someone who uses explitives to describe a programming language is someone who has a higher likelihood of not having objective reasons for disliking it.
Even if I prefer tool A over tool B I can still find merit in tool B. By using explitives I demonstrate I may be unwilling to use tool B if it's requested of me.
As for the junior employee comment- I think the point was that someone with less experience is either repeating what they've heard or they don't yet have an opinion due to lack of experince.
BASIC, then C and C++ with some ASM (embedded systems), then Java (android apps), then Python, then node & PHP & js/html/css, as proficiencies. Smattering of other things as "have useds", inc. clojure, R.
Interestly, it's the contrary to what you've inferred. Last time I talked about this topic in person, one of the typical mid level language snobs loudly and obnoxiously declared "PHP is a shit language, a really shit language", with the typical arrogant dismissive tone.
But as all experienced devs know, you program _into_ the language, not with the language. The more opinionated the language, e.g. Java and it's traditionally zealous adhesion to OOP and obstruction of other paradigms like functional, the harder it is to do that.
Hence the reason I like PHP is because it's the opposite of the weak minded (who make up their mind of "the one true way", based on little, and stick to it come hell or high water), and instead it leaves it up to you, to program _into_ as is fit for the project.
Plus the fact that it's interpreted, which acts as a good barrier to the premature optimizers. And the fact it's been around so long that it dominates the internet so there's no shortage of work in it.
Your comment on the other hand comes off as very hostile - essentially, if you like PHP it's because you don't know better - it's because you only know that language.
Yes, that is exactly what I am claiming. I base the claim on my knowledge of programming languages, and also on my previous experiences with php teams.
To combat this claim, please provide us with data or anecdotes instead of false accusations of hostility.
When it comes to programming languages, I am hostile towards falsehood only, not towards any individual or group of people.
Also the rest of your comment seems highly defensive. You seem to imply that people who agree with you must be senior, while people who disagree must be junior or even worse, something in between. It sounds like you have been bitten by discussion where facts against your conviction were presented, and you were unable to factor that into your views. Am I at all close or completely off the target?