Re[2]: [PHP-EVANGELISM] Bad rep?

On Wed, 7 May 2003, Lothar Scholz wrote:
> Don't you agree that the IT industry is driven by hype ?

Sure, and as I have repeatedly stated, I refuse to play the game.  We
cannot compete with large companies with advertising budgets and
golf-course wheelings and dealings.  If we were even to try we would end
up looking amazingly silly.  We can only compete technologically and our
strength is our ability to cut through the hype with a pragmatic and
unbiased approach.  We are not going to do things that don't make any
technical sense in order to try to massage the perception of PHP.

> Consultants want to sell Java services and this means application servers.

There will always be snake oil salesmen and suckers that buy it.  

> I don't have stats for the USA but in good old germany its a fact that
> you get only half the money if you do a PHP job. No matter if you are
> also perfect in C++, Eiffel, Ada or whatever. PHP has the attribute of
> being low cost.

Probably because it took you a quarter of the time.  The web problem isn't 
that hard and as such it really shouldn't cost a lot of money to solve it.  
A decent consultant is going to sell his services based on deliverables.  
Some clients don't care how the problem is solved, as long as it is 
solved.  Other clients think they know better and dictate technology 
decisions and due to supply-and-demand they end up paying more for some 
technologies.  PHP being on the low end of that scale is a result of the 
fact that the world is crawling with people who think they are PHP 
experts.  A lot of these people are quite junior and are willing to work 
for less.  It takes more experience to feel that you are a Java expert 
because by definition it is more complex which translates to the pool of 
Java consultants being more experienced and therefore they are not willing 
to work for less money.

Making PHP look like Java in order to raise the bar and decrease the pool 
of competent consultants in order to raise the average consulting fee goes 
right back to the "make it more complex" elitist argument that pisses me 
off so much.

It boils down to the fact that it is easy to solve the web problem with 
PHP.  Because it is easy more people can do it.  Because more people can 
do it you are not going to be able to charge as much for the service.  
That's just the way it is, live with it.

-Rasmus