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Subject: Re: [PHP-DEV] PHP User Survey
From: lester@lsces.co.uk (Lester Caine)

Paul Reinheimer wrote:
> So my suggestion is simple, let's ask them: What they want, What they need,
> how they installed PHP (source, rpm, deb, provided by hosting provider,
> Zend Server), etc. Let's create a survey, and link to it prominently on
> php.net. I considered just writing a survey myself, but even if everyone I
> knew tweeted it I'd still lack the reach to hit those outside the
> traditional community.

Little backtracking here ...

I was in a van with my son-in-law yesterday and we got around to discussing 
websites and the like. I run his sites, but HE uses Joomla, so although it's PHP 
he has no interest in the language as such as long as Joomla works. So this 
morning I though 'What ARE people using with PHP?" expecting to see a large 
chunk of the 90 odd % of websites actually using PHP to be using something to 
hide that, and got something of a surprise ...
http://w3techs.com/technologies/history_overview/content_management/all makes 
interesting reading, and so while I was anticipating that a large chunk of users 
would be excluded from 'PHP' related questions, the reverse seems to be the truth?

Perhaps this diversity is just a sign of the flexibility of PHP, but it does 
highlight the fact that simply getting the likes of Joomla and Drupal on board 
with current versions of PHP only addresses a small number of end users. 
Wordpress has an impressive takeup, and figures I was expecting to see for the 
other two given the hype, but what is highlighted is that the vast majority of 
users are perhaps using a much wider range of code that all needs to be tested 
and reworked for new versions of PHP. I suspect the information missing here is 
the number of smaller project CMS systems and other site generation tools 
against 'hard coded' PHP websites? But it does perhaps explain why ISP's are 
having problems moving clients forward where it is not simply a matter of using 
a later version of a third party tool?

-- 
Lester Caine - G8HFL
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