Aristotle says somewhere that it's the mark of a wise person not to demand more complexity from an answer than the nature of the question requires.
At Port80, we have our own, programmer's version of this maxim -- it's the mark of a wise developer not to use tools of greater complexity than the task at hand demands.
We use a variety of programming languages and paradigms in our daily work -- Python, classic ASP, JavaScript, ASP.NET, and of course (being ISAPI mavens) good old C and C++. We also use development tools ranging in complexity from notepad.exe to Visual Studio .NET. It all depends on what we are trying to accomplish at the time.
This probably doesn't make us all that unique -- lots of folks in the tech world have a kit bag of favorite tools that they keep handy for various occasions. Since the tasks they have to carry out vary in complexity and scope, so do their tools. If you carry nothing but a hammer, as someone (not Artistotle) said, the whole world starts to look like a nail.
So we were heartened to see this article announcing IBM's recent move to integrate PHP with their backend server technologies. From our point of view, it makes perfect sense to stay away from big, complex tools like Java and WebSphere until there is a real need for them -- especially if there is a smooth upgrade path from a lighter-weight, but very rapid-application type technology like PHP. The article captures this idea perfectly:
"People recognize that scripting languages fill a certain space in the market, including others in the Java community," Murphy said. "As IBM pushes into the small and medium-size market, which uses a lot of scripting, they need to make a play there."
One industry executive who requested not to be named said that IBM's push into PHP and scripting reflects IBM's disillusionment with the Java standardization process and the industry's inability to make Java very easy to use.
IBM's been so fed up with Java that they've been looking for alternatives for years," the executive said. "They want people to build applications quickly that tap into IBM back-ends...and with Java, it just isn't happening."
So huzzah to IBM for seeing that small really can be beautiful, when small is what you need to get the job done.