Yes, there are too many configuration variables. The languages are getting better as it matures. C++ started as C with headers.
You get a fairly good overview of the developement cycle of PHP from this
PHP Developers Meeting.
Note the following:
- 5.5 Object casting to primitive types.
- 5.6 name spaces.
- 5.12 Delegates.
A PHP 6 overview: By Danne Lundqvist
"The register_globals, magic_quotes and safe_mode will finally disappear and hopefully slowly fade away into distant memory. It seems PHP 6 will even refuse to start if these settings are found in php.ini. Dropping support for the long versions of super globals, like HTTP_POST_VARS, is also scheduled. This is long overdue."
He is developing a hosted application,
a help desk system, in PHP using the Zend framework.