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Subject: Re: [PHP-DEV] Re: [PHP6] Function name consistency
From: larry@garfieldtech.com (Larry Garfield)

On 1/24/14 2:27 PM, Yasuo Ohgaki wrote:

>> 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,

I don't mean "never add a function again".  I mean adding functions for 
no particular value other than having more of them helps nothing, and 
arguably makes the situation worse.  Where possible, we shouldn't be 
adding yet-another-utility-function but looking to how to build more 
complete and functional language capabilities and standard libraries, 
rather than piecemeal addition of functions one RFC at a time.

For your example, for instance, session handling is as of PHP 5.4 an 
object.  That's the cleaner way to handle it than a bunch of functions. 
  Can that function be better integrated into an API rather than just 
added to a long list of tools?  I don't know; maybe.  But we should be 
asking those questions, not saying "how many more ways to type strcmp() 
can we introduce to confuse people."

--Larry Garfield