Sure, and its only an extra 4 character, really. But that's not the issue
at hand. The issue at hand is that the inconsistency of supporting <?= and
<%= but not <?php= encourages quite a few people to use the 'optional' short
form tags, meaning that their code isn't portable.
For each person who says <?php= $variable ?> is hard to read at least one
other person says they find <?php echo $variable ?> harder to read. I
personally find the first easier to read when it is embedded in the middle
of a long line of HTML (like an input tag for example).
If you don't like to use the shorthand, don't. But, if there is a call from
the masses (and 13 to 3 (81.25% for) seems pretty overwhelming to me) to
support consistent availability features in the syntax (even if you don't
like, or wouldn't use the feature) what technical reason is there to support
inconsistent availability of the feature?
What possible harm comes from improving the internal consistency of the
language? Why is a two-line patch that would completely remove an
inconsistency so bitterly fought against?
If $i++ were only supported with the short tag forms, would people actually
fight adopting it in the standard tag form because 'you'll survive writing
an extra 3 characters'?
- Theo
-----Original Message-----
From: Andi Gutmans [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]]
Sent: Friday, April 26, 2002 8:38 AM
To: Brinkman, Theodore; 'PHP Developers Mailing List'
Subject: RE: [PHP-DEV] <?= and <%= both work, why not <?php=
At 19:11 25/04/2002 -0400, Brinkman, Theodore wrote:
>Well, having read that thread (thank you), I tallied up the votes (where I
>could tell what the vote was) and it was 13 for, 3 against, 2
>undecided/don't care. Of the unsure, one person voted against, then
>undecided, then for, the other voted don't care, then against. Of the
>against, one voted against purely on stylistic reasons.
>
>Why wasnt' this change implemented? It's not a feature anyone would be
>forced to use, it improves syntax consistency, and the feeling from that
>discussion was overwhelmingly for the change.
Let's not get into it again. I'm sure you'll survive writing an extra 5
characters.
Andi
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