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Subject: Re: [PHP-DEV] Re: [PHP6] Function name consistency
From: rowan.collins@gmail.com (Rowan Collins)

On 24/01/2014 20:27, Yasuo Ohgaki wrote:
> Hi Larry,
>
> On Fri, Jan 24, 2014 at 10:11 AM, Larry Garfield <larry@garfieldtech.com>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]