Always thought React (specifically JSX) made JavaScript "the new PHP" in that there is markup all mixed in with syntax that is so similar to old school PHP.
"New school PHP" frameworks like Laravel are nearly exactly like Ruby-on-Rails: The same MVC style, database and ORM built-in, Laravel is so similar to Rails in many ways.
I would say:
"Laravel is the new Rails"
and
"New PHP is the old Python/Ruby"
The original dev use case for Wordpress where you can easily put up a basic CRUD app with user logins and roles/permissions was largely displaced by Django, which is just a little bit more mature of a project for such tasks than Wordpress could ever be. WP never wanted devs anyway, they wanted bloggers - so a lot of people stopped writing PHP simply because WP lost popularity as a web framework.
PHP lost a ton of up-and-coming developers to Python (esp. in academia) and JavaScript (esp. to Node), in the same way Flash/AS3 lost developers to iOS/Android. Unlike Flash, PHP never really died - just kept hanging around.
It's not a bad language, brings back fond memories at least. But there's nothing about its performance or usability that stands out, and there's no core platform need for it the way there was with Wordpress. JavaScript has the browser DOM and Node, Python has AI/ML libraries and best practices that aren't available in other languages, and in terms of another PHP use case - all the dynamic languages can quickly start an http server on localhost now. There's just no use case for PHP.
"New school PHP" frameworks like Laravel are nearly exactly like Ruby-on-Rails: The same MVC style, database and ORM built-in, Laravel is so similar to Rails in many ways.
I would say:
"Laravel is the new Rails"
and
"New PHP is the old Python/Ruby"
The original dev use case for Wordpress where you can easily put up a basic CRUD app with user logins and roles/permissions was largely displaced by Django, which is just a little bit more mature of a project for such tasks than Wordpress could ever be. WP never wanted devs anyway, they wanted bloggers - so a lot of people stopped writing PHP simply because WP lost popularity as a web framework.
PHP lost a ton of up-and-coming developers to Python (esp. in academia) and JavaScript (esp. to Node), in the same way Flash/AS3 lost developers to iOS/Android. Unlike Flash, PHP never really died - just kept hanging around.
It's not a bad language, brings back fond memories at least. But there's nothing about its performance or usability that stands out, and there's no core platform need for it the way there was with Wordpress. JavaScript has the browser DOM and Node, Python has AI/ML libraries and best practices that aren't available in other languages, and in terms of another PHP use case - all the dynamic languages can quickly start an http server on localhost now. There's just no use case for PHP.