My question really is can you do EVERYTHING in PHP that you can do in (Ruby)Rails/Django(python)? By me just concentrating on PHP (Framworks too) will i be losing out in someway? I prefer PHP but everyone tells me Rails is better? Any advice?
Thank you in advance ;-)
Personally, I believe that you can be a great developer in any language. Being a great developer is not a function of a language's popularity. That being said, most great developers I know can program in pretty much any language. I tend to swap languages with each company I start.
Jacob
I would say it is not necessary nor sufficient to know PHP, Ruby or Rails in order to be a great developer.
I would say that all great developers know multiple languages and probably have exposure to multiple frameworks, architectures and paradigms.
I wrote code in: C, C++, Pascal, Prolog, Lisp, Python, 8086 ASM, MOTOROLA ASM, PHP, Javascript, Fortran, Java... and still, languages have nothing to do with being a good developer. A good one is someone, IMVHO, who can design things. Bring solutions that work to problems. The simpler, the better. And analogies with "real world" situations are what actually inspire great developpers.
Developpers do more than "programming", they imagine and draw solutions, the language choice is IMO a technical one.
Every language has its purpose. Every language you learn adds to your experience, and for each languages you learn, you also learn new skills you can apply in whichever language you choose to solve a given task with.
But as Jacob wrote, you can be a great developer in any language. But every language will add to your general abilities. Quoting Heinlein; specialization is for insects.
Language choice should be made on the basis of the requirements of the project, where the language is needed. When evaluation the use of PHP, the question is not 'can't I do this in PHP?', but instead 'is PHP the best languages to fulfull these requirements?'.