Re: PHP !== Hypertext Pre-Processor

Hi, Jay. Jay Blanchard wrote:

[snip] Please take a look at this post <http://blogs.phparch.com/mt/?p=125> and this comment by Chris Shiflett <http://blogs.phparch.com/mt/?p=125#comment-7459>. They aren't saying this acronym has to change, but it could be better... So, why don't we change it? That's what I mean. In the end, as I already said, PHP is much more than a Hypertext Preprocessor. [/snip] I know these guys and appreciate their viewpoint, but if you change the name you may do more harm than good. Let's call it "Foo". When it was changed to Pre-Hypertext Preprocessor it was a kludge from Personal Home Page (which sounds like a hobbiests version of something other than a language). Any change will have to have back reference to PHP. The books on the shelf and the books being authored, how do you handle that?

I am not suggesting to change "PHP", but change what PHP stands for. Change "PHP" would have no point and would be worst, IMO. When you introduce somebody to PHP, you say "It stands for Hypertext Pre-Processor and you can do server-side and command-line scripting, even GUI applications". I doesn't make sense, IMO. "Hypertext PreProcessor" was a fair name for PHP3, but It isn't for PHP4 nor PHP5... and It'll be worse for PHP6 <http://www.php.net/~derick/meeting-notes.html>. What about PHP9? I think PHP is growing and someday that recursive acronym will become unacceptable. I think we better make the switch now, I mean on the PHP6 release. Cheers! -- Gustavo Narea. PHP Documentation - Spanish Translation Team. Valencia, Venezuela.