Hacker News Reader

Comment by maratd | Hacker News Reader

> The article tries to be a comprehensive list of problems with PHP and @ is a notorious one

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.

View on HN

Ok, let me fix that: "The article tries to be a comprehensive list of problems with PHP and @ is an error suppression tool that is notorious for being misused throughout the community".

> 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 don't know anything about you, but judging from that attitude you haven't worked in many teams.

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.

> I haven't worked on any teams. I've always written software solo. What of it?

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.

Isn't the fact that you have to refactor so much of other peoples code an indication that something might be wrong? I'm not familiar with the PHP ecosystem but I don't know of many people having to refactor Ruby gems.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com