Background
In the realm of web development, PHP once faced a less-than-stellar reputation, but Laravel has thrust it back into the spotlight, reshaping the landscape for crafting contemporary websites.
Laravel’s appeal stems from its clean, expressive syntax, supported by exceptional documentation and built-in systems that streamline development. It adeptly handles routing and database management, and often simplifies otherwise intricate tasks.
At the heart of Laravel is its creator Taylor Otwell. Interestingly, Laravel, originally stemmed from Taylor’s own desire to create robust reusable code that could help him in designing solutions more efficiently. It was not in fact a commercial idea, but purely for personal use. However, over time Laravel has evolved beyond Taylor’s personal use and it is now an ever growing a developer-centric platform, empowering creators to fashion innovative solutions.
Central to Laravel’s ethos is its open-source nature. Otwell’s dedication lies not in commercial projects but in nurturing Laravel as an open-source endeavor, prioritizing community growth. This commitment is palpable in platforms like Laracasts which helps to create a supportive environment for developers.
Laracasts caters specifically to PHP and Laravel developers, fostering a community-driven ethos with a huge resource of video tutorials made for Laravel developers.
Laracasts emerged as a beacon, designed to counteract the frustration of piecing together scattered solutions found via Google.
~Jeffery Way (Larcasts Creator)
This platform, along with the Laravel Podcast and Laravel News, contribute to the vibrant Laravel ecosystem. They provide avenues for learning, staying updated, and fostering a community that drives Laravel’s evolution.
In essence, Laravel’s success lies not just in its technical prowess but in its unwavering focus on community and its relentless drive to simplify the development journey for PHP and Laravel enthusiasts worldwide.
Fun Facts about Laravel
FUN FACT#1: Taylor has a particular way of writing comments in Laravel.
Jeffrey Way (creator of Laracasts) said the following,
“One of the most famous things is how Taylor structures the code comments in the Laravel source code…so that every comment is 3 lines long and each line is like three characters shorter than the one before. He does it over and over – there is probably over a hundred cases of it… and it makes no difference to the code”.
Interestingly a lot of developers have said that they find it very appealing!”
Check out some examples below!
FUN FACT #2: When Taylor and Dayle Rees (author of the “Code Happy” book, an insightful guide for Laravel enthusiasts) were out hiking in Switzerland when they realized that they still had phone signal, so they decided that they should commit something! So somewhere buried in the Laravel codebase is a commit with a message from the top of a Swiss mountain!
Links
https://laravelpodcast.com
https://daylerees.com/codehappy
If you are interested in learning more this is a cool little documentary on the birth of Laravel that I recommend giving a look!