Re: Re: [PHP6] Function name consistency

Hi Larry, On Fri, Jan 24, 2014 at 10:11 AM, Larry Garfield <larry@garfieldtech.com>wrote: > On 1/23/14 1:31 PM, Rowan Collins wrote: > > Therein lies the whole problem with adding more aliases - it just makes >> things more inconsistent, as developers can use (deliberately or >> accidentally) different names for the same function. >> >> I still have to think a moment when I see sizeof() or print, rather than >> count() or echo - let alone having to remember which version of PHP >> introduced which alias so that libraries don't break when deployed to >> older servers. >> >> I think it's far better to have replacements for whole sets of functions >> that are clearly "new and shiny" - be that OO strings and arrays, or >> just namespaces for extensions like mbstring. In fact, a namespace for >> mbstring could allow a much cleaner version of the "override normal >> string functions" system, because you could just "use" the namespace, >> and have functions with overlapping names... >> >> Regards, >> Rowan Collins >> [IMSoP] >> > > Agreed. Simply aliasing a bunch of functions offers no useful value, but > does increase confusion. ("Wait, do I use strcmp() or string_compare() on > this project? What version are we on again? Oh, look, this library uses > both. Must have been different devs. FML.") > > If we're going to do anything, be aggressive and far-reaching with it. > Build a proper language-level OOP design for string/array manipulation. > > We have enough functions lying about. Don't add more. We should be careful choosing names. I agree. However, not adding more function names is simply impossible. For example, I'm about to add new session function named string session_create_id([string $prefix]) for user save handlers, so that user could generate secure ID easily. It's a straight name for session ID creation and there might be users using this name. Not adding any new names means not adding any new features nor cleanups. Regards, -- Yasuo Ohgaki yohgaki@ohgaki.net