Re: [RFC][VOTE] Rename T_PAAMAYIM_NEKUDOTAYIM to T_DOUBLE_COLON

Hi again, A further and perhaps more important thought: I think the token names are actually the least confusing part of parser errors, even for the famous T_PAAMAYIM_NEKUDOTAYIM. Changing it to T_DOUBLE_COLON may not help much, because the parser only tells you what the next token it expected was, not *why* it expected it, i.e. what is wrong with the syntax. A user might think they need to add a :: but it's not their actual problem. For example, if you google for “T_PAAMAYIM_NEKUDOTAYIM” errors, one of the classic examples where you got such an error was: var_dump(empty(TRUE)); If the error had said T_DOUBLE_COLON it would still be mystifying: why did PHP think you needed a :: there? And just adding one won't fix the problem! The actual issue was that empty() used to not support arbitrary expressions, only variables, and the expected T_PAAMAYIM_NEKUDOTAYIM is because the only way TRUE could be part of a variable would be if it was a class name (TRUE::$foo). The way to fix it is to replace empty() with the ! operator, but you'd have a hard time figuring that out from the error. I think this is the real reason T_PAAMAYIM_NEKUDOTAYIM was famous: even if you knew it meant double colon, the error message is still cryptic. The good news is T_PAAMAYIM_NEKUDOTAYIM is no longer quite the menace it once was. PHP 7's parser and syntax overhaul (thank you Nikita!) fixed it in some places: $ php -r 'var_dump(isset(TRUE));' Fatal error: Cannot use isset() on the result of an expression (you can use "null !== expression" instead) And other places where you might have once seen T_PAAMAYIM_NEKUDOTAYIM now give a different unhelpful parser error, which renaming T_PAAMAYIM_NEKUDOTAYIM will not help with: $ php -r 'unset(TRUE);' Parse error: syntax error, unexpected ')', expecting '[' in Command line code on line 1 So if there was ever a time to rename T_PAAMAYIM_NEKUDOTAYIM, it would have been many years ago. There's much less benefit to renaming it now, especially given it says “'::' (T_PAAMAYIM_NEKUDOTAYIM)” if you manage to get an error containing it, so you don't even need to google it. The specific name a token is given is the least of the problems there. As for parser errors, I don't know how easy they would be to improve… is it even possible for us to do so without using a hand-written parser instead of an auto-generated one? (I have no idea.) Regards, Andrea