Not to mention that I have no idea why the original commenter picked on this. It was listed as one of the 7 or so things that can go wrong with that one single, not unusual line of code. It's not like he had a whole paragraph about why @ is bad.
Nonsense. The @ error suppression is a tool, just like any other. It should be used sparingly, but it does have its uses. I have been writing in PHP for over a decade and I have used it exactly one time. And yes, it irritates me when I see it in other's code all over the place ... which is why I refactor all external PHP code before I place it inside of mine.
The amazing thing about PHP is that it has a plethora of tools available and the language doesn't force you to write code in some constrained manner according to what some snob perceives as the right way. The only right way is the way that works and works well.
You don't like a feature of PHP? Don't use that feature. Simple as that.
> I refactor all external PHP code before I place it inside of mine
> You don't like a feature of PHP? Don't use that feature. Simple as that.
I don't know anything about you, but judging from that attitude you haven't worked in many teams. Of course it's not as simple as that. If I had a penny for every time I had to fix someone not checking that strpos() === FALSE, well, I could fund my own startup. You may have the luxury of refactoring all over the place, but the reality out there is that horrible code like this is left to fester until it causes real business damage.
I haven't worked on any teams. I've always written software solo. What of it?
> You may have the luxury of refactoring all over the place, but the reality out there is that horrible code like this is left to fester until it causes real business damage.
Refactoring is not a luxury, but a necessity. Not only do I refactor other peoples' code, but I refactor my own. That's the only way to get to a quality code base.
Well, that means you have zero experience with the majority of concerns expressed in this thread, and so are not qualified to opine on them. You work in a happy bubble and I envy you for it, but in the real world you very very rarely get the go-ahead to refactor old code. So in the real world, you very very rarely get to see a quality code base. In any language, really, but PHP compounds this problem with its idiosyncrasies. But you wouldn't know about that.