I would like to learn PHP for web development but have been drawn back because of comments like the following^*:

• PHP is good but generates spaghetti code
• PHP is nice but Python is marriage material
• PHP lacks stuff that you get in other languages like C# or Java

But for PHP5 I have seen some promising comments. So, my question is: How does PHP5 fare with earlier versions of the language and is it good enough now to learn for web development.

_{* Comments are just for reference not to incite a flame war. No comparison of PHP with other languages is asked for here. Please comment just on PHP5 and how it compares with earlier versions.}