How come you guys compare with it CoffeScript? Compiling to JS makes sense because that’s how the code should be distributed. That’s what browsers understand. But why should a new language come to compile to PHP? Why not build a first-class language?

CoffeeScript took off because that was the best way to write client-side code with a cleaner language/syntax. But for server-side, if someone wants a better language/syntax, there are a lot of options to choose from and you don’t have to continue with PHP if you don’t like it.