Hi! > Again, an unfair comparison. Hack isn’t intended to be a completely
I'm not sure what you refer to by "fair". Hack is not "intended", but IS a separate language - just read the manual and you will see, it is a new language which borrows some syntax from PHP. Just read their own site: Hack is a programming language for HHVM that interoperates seamlessly with PHP. I completely agree with this statement - Hack is a programming language that is different from PHP but built in a way to interoperate with it. > separate language. It’s supposed to be an augmented PHP, which is The fact that you can run (some) PHP code in Hack is a feature of Hack, the same way as if you craft Perl code I'm sure there is some code that you can run with minimal modification in PHP. So what? I'm not sure what you mean by "augmented" - you can claim C++ is an "augmented assembly language" since you can insert assembly pieces into C++ code and it would work. But that would make little sense, since C++ goes way beyond and is a separate language. That yes, with some iterations, borrowed some things (one may say too many if so inclined) from lower-level languages, but it does not mean it *is* any of those. > compatible with PHP. PHP code can use Hack code (in HHVM, anyway) and PHP code can use C, C++, Java or Lua code with suitable extensions. So what? > Hack code can use PHP code. Hack is a superset of PHP. There are > transitional modes, too. I'm not sure how this is relevant. Hack is a new language and a new project, with its own design, its own rules, its own governorship, its own community, its own everything. It's not something that is an opinion, it's an obvious fact. Trying to present it as if it is some part of PHP project just makes no sense to me. Yes, it build on PHP and it is great for many practical and theoretical reasons. But it does not change the plain fact of Hack being its own project and its own language. I honestly do not understand why recognition of this simple fact is such an issue. > The damage is in fragmentation. Hack threatens to fragment the PHP > community by making people jump ship to use its added features. While I don't understand that "jump ship" mentality. In last couple of months, I have used at least 6 different programming languages (not counting stuff like config languages, shell scripts, etc.) Did I "jump ship" every time? If I use PHP, am I somehow married to it and using another language is somehow becomes "cheating"? Is it the case that once I use Hack I somehow not allowed to use PHP again because I "jumped ship"? What is that "jumping" thing? I say - let people use Hack as much as they want. Let them use PHP as much as they want. Let them use anything their heart likes as much as they want. There's absolutely no "damage" or "threat" in that. PHP is not diminished because somebody is using another language, even if that language uses dollars before variable names. If PHP is ever diminished, the only reason would be because PHP is not serving its community needs well enough anymore. That what we should be thinking about - how to make PHP better suited for its users, not how to prevent people from using other languages. > the whole Hack community can use PHP libraries, only some of the PHP > community (HHVM users) can use Hack code. The consequences of this > could be severe. I do not see any "severe" consequences on that at all. If there are Hack libraries that are so awesome PHP community wants them, they'll be ported or interfaced - as happened to number of other libraries. > I’d rather there are less differences between PHP and Hack so there > are less reasons to switch. Though I suppose the specific syntax of > types is probably not a major issue. If you need Hack, by all means use Hack. There's absolutely no problem and no threat in this. If you need PHP, use PHP. I think our work here is to make PHP better, not somehow prevent people from using Hack or change PHP in a way that would make people less inclined to use Hack. -- Stanislav Malyshev, Software Architect SugarCRM: http://www.sugarcrm.com/ -- PHP Internals - PHP Runtime Development Mailing List To unsubscribe, visit: http://www.php.net/unsub.php
