RE: [PHP] Short tag: why is it bad practice?

> -----Original Message----- > From: Joshua Kehn [mailto:josh.kehn@gmail.com] > Sent: Tuesday, May 10, 2011 8:19 AM > To: Andre Polykanine > Cc: php-general@lists.php.net > Subject: Re: [PHP] Short tag: why is it bad practice? > > On May 10, 2011, at 11:11 AM, Andre Polykanine wrote: > > > Hi everyone, > > Many times I heard that the following two peaces of code are written > > in a bad manner: > > 1. > > <? > > echo "Hello, world!"; > > ?> > > > > 2. > > <form action="script.php" method="post"> > > <p>Your e-mail: <input type="text" id="uemail" > > name="uemail" > > value="<?=$f['Email']?>"></p> > > ... > > </form> > > > > As for now, I use both quite often. Why is this considered not kosher, > > I mean, good coding practice? > > Thanks! > > > > -- > > With best regards from Ukraine, > > Andre > > Skype: Francophile > > Twitter: http://twitter.com/m_elensule > > Facebook: http://facebook.com/menelion > > > Because short tags aren't always enabled and can cause things to break when > deploying code to different environments. Best practice dictates that your > code should be as environmentally independent as possible. > > It's another few characters, why neglect it? This is always a source of confusion. http://www.bin-co.com/php/articles/using_php_short_tags.php <?= $foo ?> is generally NOT what the short tags controversy are about. It's the use of <? Some php here ?> vs. <?php some php here ?> While it is true that the 'short_open_tag' directive enables both (for some stupid reason), the issue is that it's poor form to use JUST <? And not <?php just as it's a bad idea to use <% %> (asp tags). Using <?= is perfectly fine and in my personal and professional opinion, preferred to the uglier <?php echo $foo; ?> way This topic was very heated when the core PHP developers were going to remove the <? Form all together in future PHP 6 versions and everyone got their panties in a bunch because they assumed it meant the <?= form too (which it did not). http://php.net/manual/en/ini.core.php http://www.php.net/~derick/meeting-notes.html#remove-support-for-and-script- language-php-and-add-php-var