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Subject: Re: [PHP-DEV] Official Preprocessor
From: rowan.collins@gmail.com (Rowan Tommins)

On 3 February 2023 22:48:14 GMT, "Thomas Kr=C3=BCger" <thomas=2Epakkanen@po=
steo=2Ede> wrote:
>Hi,
>
>why not using the existing Typescript programming language and transpile =
it to PHP? :)
>
>There are community examples for doing that:
>"ts2php"
>https://www=2Enpmjs=2Ecom/package/ts2php


I can think of a few reasons=2E

Firstly, TypeScript is a language designed with a very specific purpose: t=
o build a statically typed language on top of the existing functionality of=
 JavaScript=2E Although some of the decisions that follow from that would a=
lso aid compatibility with PHP, some would lead to serious mismatches - for=
 example, JavaScript has an entirely different object model, with prototype=
s rather than classes [1], and methods more closely resembling closures bou=
nd to the object=2E

Secondly, designing the language is only half the battle, probably less=2E=
 It requires expertise to do well, but the bulk of the time is spent *imple=
menting* that design=2E It can be deceptively easy to implement a proof of =
concept that can run some carefully chosen sample code, but actually making=
 something production ready is a much bigger effort=2E It doesn't surprise =
me at all that the project you linked had some initial beta releases, and t=
hen went quiet for several years=2E

Thirdly, if this approach made sense, TypeScript wouldn't need to exist - =
Microsoft could have written tooling to translate C# to JavaScript instead=
=2E The reason languages like TypeScript are created is specifically to bri=
dge existing code and existing knowledge from an existing language=2E That =
might mean running in the same run-time as the older language, or just bein=
g similar enough to allow a supervised one-off conversion=2E For PHP, that'=
s the thinking behind Hack (from HHVM), Zephir (from the Phalcon framework)=
, and more recently Ara (https://ara-lang=2Eio/)=2E

To succeed, a new language needs a rare combination of committed resources=
 (which generally means commercial backing to pay multiple full time develo=
pers), plus a critical mass of users=2E Zephir lacked both; Hack had backin=
g inside Facebook, but didn't gain traction outside it; I wish Saif luck wi=
th Ara, but I'm not holding my breath=2E


[1] Yes, there's now a "class" keyword, but it's just syntactic sugar; the=
 fundamental inheritance model still consists of prototype chains=2E

--=20
Rowan Tommins
[IMSoP]