You have worked around the quirks and you have lived with the inconsistencies. You have stood by and watched your code fail spectacularly between minor point releases. You scrambled to fix your code’s dependence on register_globals set to on when they got turned off by default in version 4.2.0. You have lived with the disappointment when version 5 failed to deliver on better object orientation. There have been a lot of warning signs telling you to look for better alternatives, but still you persevered. Then came the recent changes that really make you shake your head in disbelief. Face it, PHP’s direction as of late has really taken a downturn. You’re thinking it’s time to look for alternatives.

If you are one of those folks who have been using PHP and nothing but PHP for a long time you will be hard pressed to find an alternative. PHP is, after all, one of those things that are “easy to get into, but difficult to get out of”. PHP lures you in with its forgiving nature, vast library of pre-built extensions, ease of deployment and just plain “instant gratification”. It’s easy to forget that there are other languages for server-side programming/scripting.

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Ever since my last Eclipse 3.3 install broke down due to a botched update, I have given up using it and started using Vim. I still keep an eye out for new developments for the platform though. The recent release version 3.4 codenamed Ganymede had a lot of promise.

I tried the latest version of Eclipse the other night. As usual, I downloaded the “Eclipse Classic” tarball for Linux. It’s an iffy release to say the least, akin to KDE 4.0. There have been major changes in the platform itself. But the most visible part is the way plugins are managed and installed. Personally I had high hopes for the new UI as the old one was a bit unwieldy to work with. Unfortunately, the new UI still needs a lot more work done. The main problem I had with the new UI is that even the plugins that already came with the package I downloaded still show up int the Available Software window. There also appears to be a bug where if you check and then uncheck a plugin, it will still install that plugin. There are also some new issues and regressions introduced by the new UI that they still have to work on.

Right now, I’m back to using Vim. Eclipse 3.4 is just too flaky for me at the moment.