JavaScript is moving towards Java and Java is moving towards JavaScript:

* JavaScript is moving to server-side and is going to have classes and modules and other stuff coming soon
* Java is moving towards JavaScript with lambda and some dose of type inference and due to (also) Avatar, enabling to execute efficiently JavaScript code on the Java server-side platform.

And PHP ? IMHO, PHP sits into the middle, that is, between JavaScript and Java.

A JavaScript++ (that JavaScript+classes+modules) will be as good as PHP: no type, classes, modules, lambda... (but, today, JavaScript is not as widely used on the server-side as PHP).

But PHP does not have (out of the box) the "typing" insurance and the performance of the Java platform.

Then: JavaScript++ < PHP < Java.

When, JavaScript and Java are moving towards each other, what will be the place left to PHP ? IMHO, it will be not so big...