News flash: A programming language requires knowledge of it's standard library of functions, and can be used in less than clean/optimal ways.<p>PHP is where it is because it's easy to install, works fairly well, has a huge/comprehensive built in library, and is usable by many types of people. It also has solid documentation on it's website.<p>If you're really worried about this, use a framework, or templating engine. Smarty is a relatively lightweight solution for splitting logic from presentation, and also handles caching for you.