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Why does it seem that everytime I mention PHP to someone, they say they've never heard of it (the "common peoples", that is, even some 'programmers') but they've all heard of Java, C++, Python and HTML/CSS. Some people have never even heard of JavaScript, and think it is just Java when I mention it! So my question is, why? Why does nobody really know about PHP, but do know about Python? I understand Java and C++. Not sure about the others though, and not knowing JS is just weird to me.

I think each has their own reason for being known. Java is well-known to end-users because it is so annoyingly persistent in making you perform updates. C++ is known to most gamers since they have simply heard that most commercial AAA games are made with it. And most people have wondered at one point or another what web pages are made with. But PHP is a server-side technology, which is a whole group of technologies that non-technical people don't understand. That, and PHP has lots of competition: .NET, Java, Ruby, Python, Cold Fusion and others. And again for Javascript, I don't think they understand where it fits in. The odd naming history of Javascript just complicated things.

Jackolantern wrote:I think each has their own reason for being known. Java is well-known to end-users because it is so annoyingly persistent in making you perform updates. C++ is known to most gamers since they have simply heard that most commercial AAA games are made with it. And most people have wondered at one point or another what web pages are made with. But PHP is a server-side technology, which is a whole group of technologies that non-technical people don't understand. That, and PHP has lots of competition: .NET, Java, Ruby, Python, Cold Fusion and others. And again for Javascript, I don't think they understand where it fits in. The odd naming history of Javascript just complicated things.

That makes sense. Makes me seem either smarter for using an "abstract" language when I tell people, or some kind of dumb programming hipster, depending on how they take it

PHP started more or less as a toy, and slowly grow up to a more usable form. I used it professionally for around 5-7 years, and then switched to C# / .NET. Why? Because PHP even if offer a quick way to produce a web site / application it tends to be tedious for bigger projects. The lack of compilation lead to possible bugs you will not discover till you test the page for example. For many PHP remains a toy you should not use for professional development. Everyone is free to choose the technology he/she want, I don't want to start a flame war here.

javascript remains a.... hack kind of language. People used it mainly just for form validation more than anything else till they see what kind of applications javascript (one of the worse actual language in my opinion).

Java allows big enterprise level development thanks to JBoss and other web applications. C++ being the more versatile and low level language currently being used (yet I would hardly use it for web development). Python and perls are well known sysadmin languages.

It's sort of like when there's good sound engineering at a concert, you don't notice how good the sound engineering is.

The better something is, the more invisible it becomes!

it is a love hate relationship. You either love it or hate it.

Walk into a room full of engineers and say Ruby and see how fast the room clears

Funny, since I myself don't even mention PHP when discussing about what I do..
-'I do some web dev and stuff'.

But of course, It's like Callan said..
No one talks about how and why the sound engineering was set up in a concert.
But without sound engineering, the concert would be less entertaining.

Without PHP, the webpage would be... ASP?

No, there is loads of technologies beside PHP. Java offers even a couple of different options for it. Phython do have some too. Ruby on Rail. ASP.NET (which is a different world from ASP) and many many others. So no, PHP is definitively not the only and best solution out there.