Re: Changing fundamental language behaviors

On Thu, Sep 12, 2019 at 7:10 PM Lynn <kjarli@gmail.com> wrote: > On Thu, Sep 12, 2019 at 7:59 PM Mike Schinkel <mike@newclarity.net> wrote: > > > > > > > Just a few weeks ago I was refactoring some particularly horrible code > > developed by previously employed developers — a code based that has a > 1400 > > line function and many other functions 100s of lines long, and I added > some > > initialization for variable and array elements prior to their use. > > > > Unfortunately my changes broke the code because the original developer > > using isset($var) as branching criteria. After finding this bug, I > > realized that this code base uses that technique frequently. I am know > > from lots of experience that this is a common technical among WordPress > > plugins. > > > > > The bug is not that you initialized the variable, it's that you initialized > it with a different value: https://3v4l.org/8mB8B > ``` > var_dump(isset($a)); > $a = null; > var_dump(isset($a)); > > // gives > bool(false) > bool(false) > ``` > > Whenever one of these errors will occur, you can initialize either the > array key or variable with null and it will work again without changing > behavior. If anything, Wordpress shouldn't be an argument to not improve > PHP, though I think it's important to consider the impact of a change, > including for the Wordpress community. However, I think most people agree > that the quality of Wordpress code and Plugins is highly debatable. I don't > like the idea of not being able to progress because Wordpress users won't > upgrade PHP. > > even without a statistics to back the word is plainfully meaningless... I guess we tend to use the word "HUGELY","NEVER","EVER","COMPANY", etc wrongly on the list just to prove some points. And, we're better off than that IMO... > Regards, > Lynn van der Berg >