Oof, thanks for reminding me about the Google Maps pricing increase.
It was very difficult to understand their thought process, and we were pretty much forced to find alternative services that had a more reasonable pricing structure. The amount they wanted to charge us for a few million geocode requests per month was bananas.
Was there really no value in keeping a customer like us around at a more reasonable rate?
It's certainly nice when talking in developer circles, but no, public perception is not the primary reason — it's more of a bonus :)
I really enjoy some of the more flexible syntax and design choices present in some other languages. It also help that various job requirements over the year have required that I build a broader skillset. Finally, the growth I've experienced by stepping outside my comfort zone the past few years is probably the best benefit, which is a good experience regardless of which language(s) you start with.
In the end, however, as we both know, most decisions in software development are an exercise in managing tradeoffs. I guess the core of my argument is that, in the past few years, PHP has done a great job at improving its balance of tradeoffs.
You're not wrong, but those articles are 5+ years old and PHP has changed A LOT in recent years — especially since the release of v7.
Still, that's not going to do much to change public perception, and I guess that's somewhat fair. PHP has earned it's reputation, even if many (but not all) criticism are now largely dated.
I'm just happy I switched to working on other languages, aside from the occasional Laravel-based side projects.
It was very difficult to understand their thought process, and we were pretty much forced to find alternative services that had a more reasonable pricing structure. The amount they wanted to charge us for a few million geocode requests per month was bananas.
Was there really no value in keeping a customer like us around at a more reasonable rate?