BUSCHKE Daniel <Daniel.BUSCHKE@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote: > Why is PHP doing that? I know it works as designed and I know it is > documented like this but that does not mean that it is a good feature, > does it? So lets talk about the question: Is that behaviour awaited by > PHP software developers? Is that really the way PHP should work here? > May we should change that?! If you've been using PHP since 2000, you probably well know all the rants there are about how terrible PHP is as a language; this is one of the big ones people always mention. An analog to your statement above is "This screwdriver is absolute *bollux* at pounding in nails! Maybe we should change that!?". (In point of fact, PHP can be seen as a screwdriver that is *astoundingly* capable of pounding in nails, so the analogy is in kind only, not in fact. In real fact, PHP is a programmer's wealthy toolkit; not complete by any means, but tools that will work for most things, *when you know how to use them*.) I don't know the reasons why; it's moot to me. The designers of PHP chose to go that route, it's up to me as a developer to know how the language works. If I'm insufficiently able to use it without throwing errors, or without realizing my code is throwing errors, perhaps it isn't the language's fault, but mine to learn to adapt to it's quirks. If I am sufficiently fed up with having to adapt to it's quirks, Then I will find another language to use. Now, that said, PHP is often some people's first programming language, and that, IMO, is a serious problem. PHP is full of these sorts of things that may not help a newbie learn proper software development skills. I love that people can teach themselves to program; I wouldn't want to take that away from anyone. And sometimes that leads to problems, too. Eventually they'll learn, and get better, or they won't, and probably not make much of a living at it if that's their desire. When I came up, I was learning how to program in two languages at the same time (not mixed in the same program; alternating): Pascal and Lisp. There really could not be two more different languages (and this was before anyone thought about OO as an actual thing rather than some loosely associated concepts.) Pascal being strongly typed, Lisp having no types and no distinction between code and data. I actually learned a hella lot more working in Lisp than I did working in Pascal. (Not the least of which was how to make my TAs scratch their heads in confusion.) But that may just be me, and since it may just be me, I'm not about to suggest it to anyone else. Now, the question here may be merely academic (read: somewhat interesting, but not really that practical). If it is not, however, this isn't the right forum. Take your question to -dev and see what they think. I am personally not interested in such a change to the language at this point. It's bad enough when they roll to a new major release breaking backwards compatibility. The anger and invective goes on for years; people quit using PHP altogether because of such things and hold grudges for years and years. > Regards > Daniel Cheers, tamouse__ -- PHP General Mailing List (http://www.php.net/) To unsubscribe, visit: http://www.php.net/unsub.php
