Around the PHP development language, which stands for Hypertext Preprocessor, there has a evolved a widespread open source community which keeps things going and up-to-date for one of the most intensively used development languages across the Web. In 2004, PHP reached it’s 5th version, which currently can still compete from a reasonable standpoint with most closed source development tools available on the market.
The question is how can an open source tool, mostly developed by software freelancers who rely on passion and hobby, provide reliability and professional behavior for companies with intrinsic enterprise resource programs, or who need constant backup and support for their websites and online businesses. With an open source tool, a company can not bypass liability issues, meaning that if something goes wrong with an online application there is no one to be held responsible for. The software tool, in this case PHP, that was used to build the specific application, comes without guarantees and support team. There is, of course, a large community of freelance developers to which problems can be addressed, but without a central management or supervision, one can not expect flawless and immediate deliveries.
As a development language, PHP can be selected based on its low cost implementation and less restrictive development environment, which allows the programmer to use whatever third party programming instruments he or she may require, but this may not bring an overall effectiveness, as more development tools are used, the higher the chances of bugs and slow runtime.
Closed source software programming tools, like the .NET technology, can bring added functionality, like the Visual Studio .NET IDE, the .NET editor which can turn seasonal programmers into permanent ones, or make those who work part-time more productive. Usually, it’s harder to find good programmers in open source development languages, since a good IDE, like the one in .NET, can help the programmer find out errors, highlight syntax, complete commands and overall organize better. The efficient debugger incorporated into the IDE takes a lot of the redundant work off the developer’s shoulders, having an output of faster coding, which, inevitably, translates into faster professional results.
