In this new post to his blog Marco Tabini eloquently explains something that less and less seem to be able to understand - the tool is only a means to an end. It's more about the artist and the end result than the tool.

What is beautiful code? Ask ten people, and you will probably get ten different answers. Ask them what makes a programming language beautiful, and you've got yourself the beginnings of a holy war.

He compares code to art - the language is just a tool, the canvas an editor waiting to be filled with lines of artist-generated works. Because of PHP's wonderful flexibility, it can be molded to fit just about any need a coder might see fit and gives them the power they need to really dig into the code and about the "paint by numbers" sort fo things language like Ruby have to offer.