program for life

Why is it that every time I start to get comfortable with a programming language, somebody else has to come along with something better? Ugh!

As I have spent the last few years becoming a devout PHP follower, I have managed to avoid falling into the trap that is known as "trying to stay on top of web programming developments". So now, I find that things like Ruby and Ajax have quickly become the buzz words on the net. Honestly, I am starting to think that it's all a horse race to determine which programmers get paid more. Some Japanese brain grabs a bunch of his favorite programming tricks from other languages, bundles it, and "whoila", I get a new learning curve. A few years back, anyone with COBOL experience was sure to make a bundle right before the turn of the century, but sure to hit the street shortly after as companies revamped to replace the antiquated backbones of their infrastructures with sturdier languages.

How long before this happens to us lowly PHP programmers? Only time will tell, but seeing as there are still people developing webpages using plain old HTML, I think our future is still bright, even if it means we don't make as much as the Ruby guys eventually do. But it is definitely hard to predict, at least from a standpoint of being someone who taught himself enough to make a buck, but isn't interested in following every web language trend.