"[...] as I have said so many times, PHP is not about purity in CS principles or architecture, it is about solving the ugly web problem with an admittedly ugly, but extremely functional and convenient solution. If you are looking for purity you are in the wrong boat. Get out now before you get hit by a wet cat!"

-Rasmus Lerdorf, creator of PHP

Makes sense… but just one thing: why is the web problem supposed to be ugly ?


Comments from long ago:

Comment from: robin

I think because:

a) …of the stateless nature of the HTTP protocol. We have to put a lot of effort to simulate statefulness. Nowadays PHP is a great help here

b) …pages must be rendered in the browser all at once, then the next page is rendered. Whereas in a desktop GUI app you could just change the value shown within a label. Nowadays we can do this with Javascript, but IMO this is ugly. The ‘page-at-a-time’ nature of HTTP will still not go away.

2003-09-11 20-33