Re: Woah

* On 2001-09-08 at 08:34, Zeev Suraski <zeev@zend.com> excited the electrons to say: > > Not really. You only have to conform if you believe that PHP is not a > standalone language. You're also assuming that most of PHP's userbase has > C background, which is usually not true. Among those coming from C > background, usually they have a limited one, and would not be used to > gettext() aliases. This sort of argument keeps coming up, but Zeev is the lucky one who sets me off.. :-) People are very free to speak about what *others* expect. Unless you are one of them, or have concrete evidence, then such remarks are nothing more than speculation, and the electrons that conveyed them are already doing other things. :-) For instance: Zeev, did you come to PHP from C? Did/do you use gettext in other languages? If the answer to the latter, at least, is 'no' then I think the experience of people like Rasmus and Chuck -- who *do* use gettext a lot, and in other languages -- carries a helluva lot more weight than your speculation and that of other non-gettext-users. Inconveniencing your long-time users in the name of language purity is, IMHO, just plain stupid. > I'm not sure why you're failing > to see the fundamental difference between a function that is complex and > perhaps requires prior knowledge, and an entry that obscures the > *namespace* of PHP. And I personally am not sure why the 'get rid of "_"' faction is failing to see that doing so would be a language REGRESSION, not a step forward. Please tell me of some examples in other languages in which long-time warts with thousands of users have been removed in later versions in the name of 'language purity.' If you can name some, cool; I will be less ignorant, and might reconsider my position. Otherwise, d'you think PHP should be *that* kind of groundbreaker? :-) Look, I think there is no question that removing '_()' is going to BREAK some users. I do not see how anyone can consider that a Good Thing. I suggest that it be left in, and documented more clearly, and the documentation updated to say 'the use of gettext() is highly recommended and preferred over that of _()'. -- #ken P-)} Ken Coar, Sanagendamgagwedweinini http://Golux.Com/coar/ Author, developer, opinionist http://Apache-Server.Com/ "All right everyone! Step away from the glowing hamburger!"