Is rewriting a PHP app into Python a productive step?
Well, it depends... ;) If you're going to use the old code together with new Python code, it might be useful, not so much for speed but for easier integration. But usually: "If it ain't broke, don't fix it". Allso rewriting can result in better code, but only do it if you need to.
As a hobby project of course it's worth it, cause the process is the goal.
I have some old apps written in PHP that I'm thinking of converting to Python - both are websites that started as simple static html, then progressed to PHP and now include blogs with admin areas, rss etc. I'm thinking of rewriting them in Python to improve maintainability as well as to take advantage of my increase in experience to write things more robustly.
Is this worth the effort?