PHP devs are Pirates 06/01/2025
TL;DR: Arrr, PHP be a cunning pirate, pilferin' ideas from other languages to stay ahead o' the fleet. 'Tis true, PHP is no bonny innovator, but it be masterful at plunderin' and adaptin' features, keepin' its sails full and its reputation mighty in the tech seas.
PHP has a long history of adopting, porting, and emulating successful ideas and tools from other technologies, often resulting in robust implementations that fit the PHP ecosystem.
Here are some examples:
- RSpec (Ruby) to phpspec (2007)
- Jinja (Python) to Twig (2009)
- Spring (Java) to Symfony (2011 -- that's the release of v2.0)
- Node.js (javascript) to ReactPHP (2012)
Those are old and established examples, but as long as there are creative PHP developers out there, there'll still be more treasures to purloin.
For example, I've recently stumbled upon Dan Leech's port of Ratatui (Rust): PHP-tui (2024).
There are no reasons to stop there.
So, what's the next innovation? What other brand new and shiny (or ancient and rusty) idea can we, PHP Pirates, bring to our colourful ecosystem?