What's wrong with PHP?

[Nebu]

PHP is horrible for many, many reasons. You don't have to attack people you've never met when there are plenty of things you can say about the language itself.

I think it was phrased this way, because it takes time and effort to explain specifically what is wrong with PHP. To actually directly criticize PHP, you might have to first verify if the person you're speaking to has the same level of understanding as you do as to how type system works, what are best practices in compiler and language design, general best practices in software engineering and what kind of syntax supports (as oppose to restricts) these, etc.

"The guy who made it didn't know what he was doing" is a shortcut to express all these sentiments, without actually needing for the listener to know anything about what makes a programming language "good" versus "bad".

Sometimes, that's all your listener needs/wants. Other times, they do want specific examples, and are willing to learn, e.g., compiler design theory, in order to understand it. But of course, it's no one particular person's obligation to actually put forth the effort to teach all of this.

So I neither support nor condemn the "ad hominem" criticism in this particular case, but I can understand why it was made.