"I think Rails is a more modern platform. I think PHP is not the ideal choice. But I think PHP is a great platform."
Yeah but here's the rub. You can't compare Rails with PHP. You need to compare Ruby to PHP, and ask if the switching costs will outweigh any deficiencies; and you need to compare Rails to e.g. Cake or Symfony or similar, and ask if one language provides a framework whose advantages are so compelling that they too will outweigh those switching costs. I have yet to be convinced.
(weighting factors may apply for dev experience with one or the other, legacy code, hosting/infrastructure support, etc.)
I don't think something like Cake is a good comparison for Rails, and it's honestly not how I think of PHP. Developing in PHP is making a collection of functions and custom made classes hacked together, in my mind. I know there are frameworks, but if you're going to use a fancy framework, you'd might as well use Rails.
I wouldn't develop in Ruby without Rails, but I wouldn't develop in PHP with a framework.
I don't like rails. When I do web development, I do it in PHP, and I avoid PHP rails-like frameworks as well. I prefer more control and most of projects don't fit into a nice box for rails.
Yeah but here's the rub. You can't compare Rails with PHP. You need to compare Ruby to PHP, and ask if the switching costs will outweigh any deficiencies; and you need to compare Rails to e.g. Cake or Symfony or similar, and ask if one language provides a framework whose advantages are so compelling that they too will outweigh those switching costs. I have yet to be convinced.
(weighting factors may apply for dev experience with one or the other, legacy code, hosting/infrastructure support, etc.)