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Comment by caleblloyd | Hacker News Reader

> Fun fact: Yii was created by a Chinese speaking guy - Qiang Xue. So, you might call Yii+Vue stack not just very difficult to pronounce, but also a Chinese stack :)

Fun fact: Qiang Xue got his PhD at Duke University and developed Yii2 while living in the D.C. Area by leading a multi-national team of core contributors, the top 3 being from Germany, Russia, and Ukraine.

He also moved on from the project mid-2015 and the other maintainers have run day-to-day operations since then. It's not a "Chinese stack". I've read the source and issues extensively and it is high quality code that welcomes high quality contributions - no matter where people are from.

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I think it's disingenuous to claim so stridently that it isn't a Chinese stack (not to mention the implicit assumption that Chinese code is not composed of high quality contributions). They're not saying that it was solely Chinese contributors who made it, just that the originators of Yii and Vue are Chinese. Yii and Vue can be considered "Chinese" in the same sense that American founders that come out of HAX Accelerator[0] in Shenzhen and operate primarily in China could still be considered to have created "American" products and companies.

[0]: https://hax.co/

I was never trying to put anything negative into this statement that both these bright people are Chinese-speaking. I know they both live in US (though it might be unfortunate for us that Qiang is currently doing Go programming in Capital One instead of actively developing Yii2). Yii2 and Vue.js are top notch.

I didn't so much read it as a negative, it's just that readers unfamiliar with the projects may think that "Chinese stack" means 1) code/issues are in Chinese and/or 2) the main contributor base is located in China.

I've been a long time user of Yii1 and Yii2. Qiang has created 3 PHP Frameworks between 2004-2015: PRADO, Yii1, and Yii2. At one point he was on a >700 day commit streak with work on Yii2. I can't blame him for needing to focus on his own professional career - OSS doesn't always pay the bills and can be very demanding.

I agree with you, and I definitely do not blame Qiang on choosing his way. I just miss him as Yii2 contributor and visionaire because that could make a real competitor to Laravel some day, in terms of community, and popularity across US and Europe. Right now Yii2 seems to move in direction of becoming a niche framework for Eastern Europe and parts of China, instead.

I agree, I miss Qiang's visionary leadership on the project also. Given his history of building frameworks I'd say there's a good chance of him doing another. It may not be PHP next time, though.

I wonder if Yii2 adoption moving more towards Eastern Europe and China is more a macro trend of PHP in general. I feel like US firms are typically choosing other languages when starting new projects based off postings and job boards I've seen recently. Maybe my view is tainted from reading too much HN though, PHP doesn't get much love here...

I don't understand the joke, and the joke seems to hint at a disadvantage since it's being explicitly spotlighted in such a way.

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