Re: Re: [PHP6] Function name consistency

From: Date: Sat, 25 Jan 2014 19:24:46 +0000
Subject: Re: Re: [PHP6] Function name consistency
References: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8  Groups: php.internals 
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On 24/01/2014 20:27, Yasuo Ohgaki wrote:

Hi Larry,

On Fri, Jan 24, 2014 at 10:11 AM, Larry Garfield <[email protected]>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.

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.


The discussion seems to have veered off on a tangent here - we were talking about adding *aliases* (new names for existing functions) that were more consistent/standardised, and why that can cause more harm than good.

Adding new functions for new functionality is an entirely different discussion. In general, I do feel that piecemeal additions like array_column() have a rather marginal benefit, and it would be nice if more parts of the standard library used OOP or at least namespaces, but having a rich standard library of functions is definitely a good thing. The password_* functions, for instance, are an excellent thing to have standardised and ready "out of the box".

But that's all completely beside the point in a discussion about giving existing functions new names.

Regards,

-- 
Rowan Collins
[IMSoP]

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