Posted by W Marsh on 07/15/07 18:28

On 15 Jul, 18:42, Michael Fesser <neti...@gmx.de> wrote:
> .oO(W Marsh)
>
> >"It is ridiculous for PHP to make the assumption that the programmer
> >has read every detail of the (poor)documentation that exists for
> >language elements, and *punish the time-pressed newcomer by expecting
> >him to know that there is an option for enabling all errors.*"
>
> You blame the tool maker just because you don't know how to use that
> tool?
>
> Yes, you might blame the PHP team for not enabling notices by default,
> but that's it. If you're serious about PHP programming and web
> programming in general, then you should also be able to adjust the
> server configuration as required.

I'm not serious about PHP at all. I am just stuck with using it as
it's part of an existing system that I have to extend.

Now, I can't believe how badly you are missing the point! Do you
really, honestly, truthfully believe that a language like PHP should
only be usable by somebody who has spent a long time reading sprawling
documentation, when perhaps the only need to use it as a tool for a
small job? That's silly, and doesn't fit into the real world at all.
PHP is full of gotchas and what I personally believe are bad design
decisions that makes it something I don't have much faith in as a
language.

I am able to see its value as part of a developer's toolkit, but even
then I think it only became valuable because it got popular by some
terrible accident.

I have the following issues with PHP:

* Its type system. The very fact that there needs to be a === operator
is indicative of bad design.
* Things like magic quotes. Great - now I have to write a bunch of
extra logic if I want a portable script. That's another place in the
system for potential errors.
* It should be simple and useful. It's not. By your own admission, you
have to devote a lot of time to it. That means it automatically fails
for most applications.

The whole language and environment feels like it was thrown together
as needed, with little thought about the consequences.

> There are even some options that should be tweaked in a .htaccess file
> (or httpd.conf if possible). Would you blame the Apache Foundation for
> not doing so by default?

It depends on what those options are. By default, Apache doesn't seem
to do anything that can result in important errors going unnoticed.

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