The eternal question that new PHP developers always ask me is : which is better faster code or faster coding ? And the new question is why choosing PHP for my project while there are many other faster and better programming or scripting languages?
Well, faster doesn’t mean necessarily better code, and faster code usually shouldn’t be the reason for choosing a programming language or another. The objective should be to build a solution, to fix problem, or to provide a service… that’s what your purpose should be, and that’s what you should focus on in first place, not on the performance of your app that you didn’t build yet !
Personally I always pick faster coding against faster code, my objective always to have a working prototype. Then we’ll see how to optimize it and make it faster, if we need to. The reason why my first programming language is PHP and not Java, Go, or Dart. Not because PHP is better, someone else will choose Go and that’s a great choice too. After all, there isn’t a better programming language, there is always a better solution at the right time !
Now should I choose a framework or not? Depends on my project. For example for enterprise level solutions, choosing framework is a must, and usually my first choice is Symfony framework. Not because it is the faster or the best Framework, but because it provides LTS version of the framework with a clear updates timeline. Which means, if I build a solution with version x.y of the framework I’m sure that my solution will keep running for at least five years with security updates, without breaking my code.
Choosing Symfony doesn’t mean it’s the best framework, there are many other great frameworks that I use also for other projects. In the same way of choosing PHP doesn’t mean it’s the best programing language.
There is no best programming language and best Framework, it’s all tools that you can use to build the best solution or business. The best thing is finally what you will build using these tools. And if you will pick faster coding against faster code, you will be more productive, and have more chances to succeed.
You can start talking about faster code, only after building your solution. So always start by building your solution itself, then we will talk about its performance. Today there are tons of solutions to make any spaghetti code run as faster and serve its purpose.
So don’t waist time thinking which is better, go ahead get started today ! If your app can serve its purpose, whatever technology you are using. The answer is always faster coding.
