On his blog over off of the O'Reilly Network today, Dan Zambonini has posted this new item that asks the question, "What is the total cost of using PHP?"

I'm not any kind of programming language zealot/fanboy - syntax is pretty much irrelevant; each to their own.

But I've been thinking about the bigger picture of choosing a language, from the business perspective. Sure, most languages can do the same thing, give or take. But what other (non-syntax) issues are there that can influence the 'cost' of adopting one language over another?

We use a mixture of languages (the best tool for the job), but I'm personally a fan of PHP, and have used it religiously for 6 or 7 years. So here are my initial thoughts on the cost of using PHP, based on this experience. I haven't really elaborated on them, but you get the idea. What have I missed out? Do any of these make sense?

He continues, talking about some of the "costs" associated with the use of the language - mostly things that could effect just about any language out there. There is one or two things, however, that he mentions that are specific to PHP - like the change in XML support lately.