Shandy,
I have developed in PHP off and on for the past few years. I've
never done it full-time and I would not call myself a guru.
Competent, yes. About a year ago, I was contracted to work on some
PHP code part time, on a regular basis. I like PHP. Then in the
spring of this year, I decided that I wanted some sort of framework
for developing my own applications, so I started researching. I
don't know why, but I didn't come across any of the PHP-based
frameworks. All I found that were serious contenders *for me* were
TurboGears (Python), Django (Python), and Rails (Ruby). So the first
thing I had to do was decide if I wanted to code in Ruby or Python,
and since I didn't know either, it was a pretty fair comparison. I
did some reading, did some experiments, and decided that I liked Ruby
better. That "forced" me to choose Rails.
A number of months later, I have left my full-time job (as a SQL
Server DBA) to work full time on the projects that I've been on for
the past year. I write in both PHP and Rails, but I like Rails a
whole lot more. I still like PHP, but I'd much rather write in
Rails. In fact, my "boss" is so happy with the work I've done in
Rails that we are going to rewrite the PHP applications in Rails some
time next year. And he's also very happy with my PHP work, so that's
saying something.
One of the sayings of the Rails project is "making developers
happy" (or something like that). I'm married with 3 kids and my
family will testify that I'm happier when I'm working Rails. And I'm
more productive. If I've got a spare 15 minutes, I can get something
real done in Rails. I need about 30 minutes to do the same things in
PHP.
This is just a quick account of my personal experience. I've decided
that all of my own personal projects will be Rails, because it suits
me better. Not everyone will agree. And when I say "personal
projects", I don't mean things that only I use. I have ideas for
commercial-ish applications that I plan on writing and releasing,
with the intent of providing the bulk of my income from them. So,
basically, I've put my personal financial future on Rails back. Only
time will tell if that was a good decision.
Oh, to provide something that is directed toward your question, I
have not yet come across anything that I can't do in Rails that I
could in PHP. I may accomplish a task in a different way, but it
still gets accomplished.
Peace,
Phillip