Last Friday, Guido van Rossum released the first alpha version of Python 3.0 aka Python 3000. Judging by the changelog, the Python developers got rid of a number of annoyances and inconsistencies in order to make the language more cleaner (again). And prominent Python users don’t seem to be afraid of adjusting their code to work with the new version. Go figure.
Maybe it is time for PHP to jump on this bandwagon as well and start getting rid of historic cruft and inconsistent function naming in some future major release? I’d certainly embrace such a move, because luckily I live in a world where people work in environments controlled by themselves instead of clueless hosting companies, and where my tool-chain supports dependency handling. Thus I couldn’t care less about backwards compatibility that so many PHP developers are afraid of. Luckily the people who do actual work on the PHP engine (which does not include me, FYI) and not the ones who scream loudest are the ones to make such decisions. As a result I expect that we’ll have to live with the current inconsistencies that have made PHP the imperfect yet likable language that it is today.