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Subject: Re: [PHP-DEV] short_open_tag
From: stas@zend.com (Stanislav Malyshev)

> The first hits explain quite well why short_open_tag is bad, mmkay.

OK, let's see what we have there:

0. Support for my email, skipping.

1. "The web is a rapidly changing market and standards are being 
activley evolved. <?php is more compatable with standards on the web 
than <? ... and its not about XML document headers."
Then goes for "include XML as template" case. And Rasmus objecting to 
short tags being bad code practice.

2. Proposal for PHP to not parse <?xml, no explanation why short tags bad.

3. Support for short tags

4. "We should have warned people not to use short tags years ago." no 
explanation why. Explaining why <?xml from 2. is not a good idea.

5. Bug report on short_open_tag

6. "As the XML community expands and more and more scripting languages 
(server and client side) are being designed to interoperate, 
cross-language compatability (or at least handling) is required." - same 
person as 1. Then:
"The short tag <? is bad form, and shows lazyness. <?php fits the 
standard, and its my recommendation that (in version 5 of the product) 
the sort tag option is removed."

No explanation why it "shows lazyness" or why it's bad except for 
hinting it's somehow bad for handling XML (which it isn't).

7. "I'm -1 on removing short tags, whether now or for PHP5." from Chris.

8. "Not going to happen, please leave this issue alone." from Zeev.
If you have any doubts, "not going to happen" is removal of the short tags.

9. "1. Removing (and even disabling by default) short tags is not
necessary for all PHP-community." from Antony.

Should I go deeper? Did we use the same search engine? I'm still missing 
explanation why short tags are bad. Since you have obviously found it, 
could you do me a favor and quickly summarize at least couple of reasons 
- omitting the one being "every application must include XML through 
parser" as obviously invalid.

-- 
Stanislav Malyshev, Zend Software Architect
stas@zend.com   http://www.zend.com/
(408)253-8829   MSN: stas@zend.com