Foreword

I am moody. I complain about many things. I do not like much in the world of technology and this is predictable: programming is a noisy young discipline, and none of us have any idea what he does. Given the law of Sturgeon , we have enough things to comprehend for life.

It's a different matter. PHP is not just inconvenient to use, does not suit me well, is suboptimal or does not correspond to my religious beliefs. I can tell you a lot of good things about languages ​​that I try to avoid, and a lot of bad things about languages ​​that I like. Go ahead, ask! Interesting discussions turn out.

PHP is the only exception. Virtually every part of PHP is somehow broken. Language, structure, ecosystem: everything is bad . And it is even impossible to point out one deadly thing, so systematic a defect. Every time I try to systematize the flaws of PHP, I’m lost in searching in depth to discover more and more terrible trifles (hence the fractal).
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PHP is an obstacle, the bane of my craft. I am going crazy about how broken it is and how much every authorized amateur who is unwilling to learn anything else is chanted. He has very little excuse for positive qualities and I would like to forget that he exists at all.

Analogy

I just blurted it out Mel to describe my frustration and she insisted that I reproduce it here:

I can't even say what's wrong with PHP, because ... Okay. Imagine, um, a box of tools. Set of tools. Looks fine, tools like tools.

You take a screwdriver and see a cross with three petals. Okay, not very useful for you, but it may someday be needed.

Take the hammer and are horrified that it is bifurcated on both sides. Of course, it is still suitable, I mean, that you can hammer in nails in the middle of the striker, holding the handle in reverse.

Take pliers that do not have chipping; they are flat and smooth. Not as useful as it could be, but they can still unscrew the bolts.

And so on. All tools are something strange and twisted, but not enough to be completely useless. And in the whole set there is no specific problem; it has all the tools.

Now imagine millions of carpenters using such a set of tools and telling you: “What's wrong with these tools? I have never used anything else and they work great! ” And the carpenters show you the houses they built with pentagonal rooms and a roof upside down. You knock on the door, it just falls inside and they yell at you for breaking their door.

That's what's wrong with PHP.

Alignment of forces

I argue that the language must have the following qualities in order to be useful and productive, and PHP breaks them with wild ease. If you do not agree that they are critical, honestly, I can not imagine how we can reach agreement on anything with us.

• Language must be predictable . Language is a carrier for expressing human ideas and executing them on a computer, therefore the human understanding of the program’s correctness is critical.
• Language must be complete . Similar things should be similar, different should be different. Knowing a part of the language should help in learning and understanding the rest.
• The language must be brief . New languages ​​exist to reduce the pattern inherent in old languages. (We all could program on machine codes.) The language should at the same time avoid introducing its own patterns.
• Language must be reliable . Languages ​​- tools for solving problems; the problems that they present in themselves should be minimal. Any strange moments cause embarrassment.
• Language should be debugged . If something goes wrong, the programmer must fix it , and we need all the help we can get.

My position is:

• PHP : mysql_real_escape_string, E_ACTUALLY_ALL
• PHP : strpos, str_rot13
• PHP : «C API»-, ===
• PHP : ==, foreach ($foo as &$bar)
• PHP : , error reporting.

, , . , , , .

PHP. , . :(

• , « », « - ». . , - ? , , .
• , . , , . , . PHP , , . .
• , « C API». , C ? C! , CGI-.
• : « , ». , - - . , C: , « ».
• , Facebook Wikipedia PHP. ! Brainfuck', . , , , - ; .
• ! ; PHP, , - , , :)

: Python. , , . , ; , , .

PHP-, PHP. , - , PHP. .

PHP

CPAN « Perl». Perl, , .

• PHP ( ); . PHP 2.0 , + :
  
  

  , , '==' (?), 'eq'. , PHP, , , .
  

• PHP , . , , . - , .
• . PHP Perl'; std- «out»- C; - C++ Java.
• PHP , , . (int) C, int . \. -: [key=>value].
• (, // ) , , .
• , ; . , .
• , — Zend' .
• . , - PHP-:
  

  @fopen('http://example.com/not-existing-file', 'r');
  

  
  ?
  
  
  • PHP --disable-url-fopen-wrapper, . ( , « »; null, ?) , PHP 5.2.5.
  • allow_url_fopen php.ini, . ( ? .)
  • - @, .
  • , scream.enabled php.ini.
  • scream.enabled ini_set.
  • , error_reporting.
  • , display_errors, php.ini. ini_set.
  
  
  , . .
• . mbstring . func_get_arg , . . register_tick_function , — ?!
• .(, .) fork( ), .
• PHP :
  
  
  • json_decode null , , null — JSON'. , json_last_error .
  • array_search, strpos 0, , false .
  
  
  - .
  
  C, strpos -1, . , . ( . C. . , .)
  
  Python' .index , . , .
  
  PHP false. FALSE , ===, PHP 0 . ; , strpos .
  
  ! — ; , . , PHP , . PHP — .

PHP- . PHP, PHP . .

, : PHP — . , , , , (, , !). , - , , . , PHP: .

, .

• ==
  
  • . "foo" == TRUE, "foo" == 0… , TRUE != 0.
  • == , . float', . , (, ) , .
  • , "6" == " 6", "4.2" == "4.20" "133" == "0133". , 133 != 0133, 0133 .
  • === … , === ! , == ( ) , === . .
• :
  
  • : NULL < -1, NULL == 0. ; , .
  • , : , . , , . , .
  • … , .
  • ==, ===. < … . "123" < "0124", , .
• Perl' , PHP +, + , . .
• [] {}.
• [] , . null .
• [] ; .
• foo()[0] — . ( PHP 5.4.)
• () , ?: . :
  

  $arg = 'T';
  $vehicle = ( ( $arg == 'B' ) ? 'bus' :
               ( $arg == 'A' ) ? 'airplane' :
               ( $arg == 'T' ) ? 'train' :
               ( $arg == 'C' ) ? 'car' :
               ( $arg == 'H' ) ? 'horse' :
               'feet' );
  echo $vehicle;
  

  
  horse.

• . , null .
• global . , , — PHP . .
• . , PHP , ; , Perl, , Python.
• «» . PHP — , … , , . ( ), . , .
• , . "SPL-", :
  
  $x = new SplBool(true); $x = "foo"; . -, .
• ( ). notice, .
• ; . (, Perl- use constant.)
• . . , camelCase .

• array() — . array , $func = "array"; $func(); .
• list($a, $b) = .... list() — array. .
• (int) , C, ; int. : var_dump(int) , parse error, .
• (integer) — (int). (bool)/(boolean) (float)/(double)/(real).
• (array) (object) . , : (array) , , . , , - , . ( .)
• include() C- #include: . , PHP-.
• . . include() ( ), .
• $foo[] = $bar.
• echo — , .
• empty($var) , , empty($var || $var2) parse error'. - empty?
• : if (...): ... endif; .

• PHP @( DOS) .
• PHP . , . ( fatal error' — . .)
• Parse error' PHP , , - .
• PHP :: T_PAAMAYIM_NEKUDOTAYIM, << T_SL. «», , , :: << .
• , .
• E_STRICT , , , .
• E_ALL — E_STRICT.
• , , . , E_STRICT , :
  
  • , $foo->x.(warning)
  • , , .( )
  • .(notice)
  • -, .(notice)
  • , .(notice)
  • 2 < "foo" ( )
  • foreach (2 as $foo); (warning)
  
  :
  
  • , $foo::x. (fatal error)
  • , . (parse error)
  • . (fatal error)
  • . (parse error)
  • list . (parse error)
  • , foo()[0]. (parse error, 5.4, . )
  
  
  parse error'.
• __toString . PHP… , . ( fatal error, .)
• PHP- PHP- . , , .
  
  • PHP- ( trigger_error) try/catch.
  • , set_error_handler.
  • , set_exception_handler , try mod_php.
  • Fatal error' ( new ClassDoesntExist()) . fatal error', . Shutdown- , ( ), .
• finally, wrapper-( , , ; , , ) . , Java, , finally « PHP». ?

• .
• , , .
• , , , , , .
• «type hint'», . int string object , , int PHP .( (int) . ) - mixed, number callback.
  
  • , :
    

    function foo(string $s) {}          
    foo("hello world");
    

    
    :
    

    PHP Catchable fatal error:  Argument 1 passed to foo() must be an instance of string, string given, called in...
    

  • , «type hint'» . string. ReflectionParameter::getClass(), type hint , , .
  • Type hint .
• (dispatch, ) call_user_func_array(' ', func_get_args()). func_get_args fatal error , , func_get_args . ? ( PHP 5.3.)
• . ? . (, , , , .)
• «» . , , . . &.
• .. , private-, . ( 5.4? .)
• . , « ».
• , , , . ( ?)
• ( , ). null.
• func_num_args, func_get_arg func_get_args. .

• PHP C, Java. , . , camelCase getFoo Java-. , ? Perl, Python Ruby: - «» ; PHP __get . Java, , - PHP, .
• . , .
• ( Perl) .
• instanceof , , . Java? first-class ?
  
  • is_a. , .
  • get_class ; typeof. is_subclass_of.
  • , instanceof (, int ). is_int .
  • ; . … parse error'.
• clone — ?!
• - Java Perl.
• $obj->foo, $obj::foo. .
• (Class::method). (. ) $this.
• new, private, public, protected, static . Java-? , , — C++ .
• private-. private-, , . , , -.
• , «list», list() — ( ) . , (. monkeypatching).($foo->list() .)
• ( new Foo(bar()) bar() ), , .( PHP 5.3.)
• __autoload fatal error.
• . __construct — , __init__ Python. , .
• . __construct, parent::__construct() fatal error'.
• , ( for...as), ( ) . , ArrayIterator. , slice' - , «first class»-.
• , , .
• , ; . . ( ) , __toString. echo .
• (. ordering).
• ; .

Perl «some assembly required»(. « »), Python — « », PHP — «, C ».

• . PHP, php.ini, : ( ) .
• namespace', . .
• :
  
  • : strpos/str_rot13, php_uname/phpversion, base64_encode/urlencode, gettype/get_class
  • «to» 2: ascii2ebcdic, bin2hex, deg2rad, strtolower, strtotime
  • + +: base64_decode, str_shuffle, var_dump versus create_function, recode_string
  • : array_filter($input, $callback) array_map($callback, $input), strpos($haystack, $needle) array_search($needle, $haystack)
  • : usleep microtime
  • i ,
  • array_. .
• . :
  
  • ImageMagick, GraphicsMagick( ImageMagick), EXIF-( ImageMagick).
  • bbcode', .
  • XML-. DOM(-), DOM XML( -), libxml, SimpleXML, «XML Parser», XMLReader/XMLWriter , . - , .
  • : SPPLUS MCVE. ?
  • MySQL: mysql, mysqli PDO.

C

, . PHP — -, - . C API, :

• «» , , PHP .
• (. ), PHP .
• mysql_real_escape_string, , mysql_escape_string, MySQL C API.
• ( MySQL). MySQL .
• , . dba_nextkey dba_firstkey segfault'.
• ctype_*( ctype_alnum) C- , , , isupper.

. , PHP .

? Perl, sort {$b <=> $a}. Python .sort(reverse=True). PHP, rsort().

• C-: curl_error, json_last_error, openssl_error_string, imap_errors, mysql_error, xml_get_error_code, bzerror, date_get_last_errors .
• : array_multisort, arsort, ksort, krsort, natsort, natcasesort, sort, rsort, uasort, uksort, usort
• : ereg, eregi, mb_ereg, mb_eregi, preg_match, strstr, strchr, stristr, strrchr, srcpos, stripos, strrpos, strripos, mb_strpos, mb_strrpos , .
• : strstr/strchr, is_int/is_integer/is_long, is_float/is_double, pos/current, sizeof/count, chop/rtrim, implode/join, die/exit, trigger_error/user_error...
• scandir . , ( ), . . , .
• str_split . chunk_split .
• . , API, bzip2, LZF, phar, rar, zip gzip/zlib.
• .. (call_user_func_array), printf/vprintf sprintf/vsprintf. , .

• preg_replace /e(eval) , eval' .
• strtok C-, . , PHP ( C ), , strtok(3)( ) PHP .
• parse_str GET-, . register_globals , . (, , .)
• explode . ; PHP , str_split « ».
• , strftime, C API . date .
• "gzgetss — gz- HTML-." .
• mbstring
  
  • «-», .
  • . « ». , .
  • ereg_*, . preg_* , UTF-8, - PCRE.

reflection

• . compact extract — .
• PHP, . classkit , runkit classkit ; Reflection*- ; . , , ?
• get_class($obj) . get_class() , . , : get_class(null)… , get_class(). . !
• stream_* . «tell» . ( .)
• register_tick_function . unregister_tick_function ; , , .
• php_uname OC. , PHP , ; . .
• fork exec . pcntl, . popen pid.
• session_decode , . $_SESSION, , .

• curl_multi_exec curl_errno , curl_error.
• mktime : , , , , , .

. , , awk Prolog C. , .

• — 32- 32- . PHP, . . GMP BC. ( 64- . .)
• PHP 0, 012 . , 08 . 8( 9) . 01c .
• pi — . , M_PI.
• , pow.

• . ASCII, . mbstring, .
• , UTF-8- .
• ASCII. , é É.
• , "$foo['key']" — . ( ) ${...}/{$...}.
• "${foo[0]}" . "${foo[0][0]}" — . , $ . Perl( )?

.

• , , , . ? ?(. ) ? .
• => — . , array(...) foreach.
• , .. -1 0.
• , , ; array(...) — . (PHP 5.4 «», [...].)
• => Perl, foo => 1 ( Perl; .) PHP ; PHP — , .
• , , . array_diff, « ».
  

  $first  = array("foo" => 123, "bar" => 456);
  $second = array("foo" => 456, "bar" => 123);
  echo var_dump(array_diff($first, $second));
  

  
  ? array_diff , ; . , ; .
  
  array_diff , ; .
• array_rand , .
• , PHP- :
  

  array("foo", "bar") != array("bar", "foo")
  array("foo" => 1, "bar" => 2) == array("bar" => 2, "foo" => 1)
  

  
  , . ( .)
• array_fill , false.
• (...) . ; , .
• array_reverse .
• , .

• «Quickhash», - « - » . , . , , «Quickhash».
• ArrayObject( ) . . , , , ArrayObject' .

• — . - , . ; var_dump(strstr) , , "strstr". «» .
• create_function eval. ( — !). , . NUL-, ( PHP- , NUL).
• __lambda_func, create_function — eval __lambda_func, . __lambda_func , fatal error.

• (++) NULL' 1. (--) NULL' NULL. .
• .

Web-

• , php.ini PHP , . PHP- , , php.ini.
• PHP CGI. PHP- . Python- .
  
  «PHP-», , PHP . Zend, , PHP, -.
• PHP- — , . , , mysql-, .
• PHP « » PHP .
  , , PHP( ), mod_rewrite, FastCGI, Server:.
• <?php ... ?>, , ( «headers already sent»). — ?>; PHP .

PHP; . , , Python, Ruby Perl. PHP .

, Web- - . : Web- , Web-, , Web-, , Web-, . Web- .

• PHP Apache. Web- ( ) .
• php.ini PHP-, . php.ini ; shared- , , ; ini_set, Apache .htaccess. . , , .
• «» PHP- . , PHP? Apache.
• « » routing , , URL', . «partial'» C, . ( .svn) . mod_php ; , , URL .
• CGI, , .
• , Apache PHP, . , PHP SetHandler .php- PHP, AddHandler , Google AddHandler. .
  
  AddHandler, Apache, « php» — .php-. ! Apache , . , , index.html.en, HTML- . Apache .
  
  , , . , PHP-, , .php. , foo.php.txt; , Apache PHP, .
  
  , « » « »; , Web-, , — PHP « ». CGI +x, -, PHP . ; .

Web-. PHP, , «Web-», - .

• . PHP, , , .
• XSS-. , « htmlspecialchars» — XSS-. XSS-.
• CSRF-. .
• API . , PDO, API .
• routing'. . , , mod_rewrite ( .htaccess) .
• .
• .
• .
• ; « ».

PHP , . . "<script>" SQL, HTML.

« ». ; , «». : placeholder' SQL, .

• PHP «»(. sanitizing): .
• addslashes, stripslashes - — , .
• , . . , ; pcntl_fork pcntl_exec.
• escapeshellcmd escapeshellarg . , Windows, escapeshellarg (.. Bourne shell), escapeshellcmd , Windows cmd ( , ).
• MySQL-, , prepared statement'.

PHP- SQL- , sprintf is_numeric, mysql_real_escape_string, addslashes ( « »!). PDO , . PHP . , … .

• register_globals. , PHP 5.4. . .
• include HTTP URL'. .
• Magic quotes. , .

PHP .

• 2007 . if (size > INT_MAX) return NULL; . ( , C: INT_MAX , , . , .)
• , PHP 5.3.7 crypt(), .
• PHP 5.4 , .. Content-Length ( ) . .

-, , X — , , . . ; , .

, . , . , , :)

PHP - , Python Flask Web'. ( , .) , , . , , ; web- — .

- Pyramid Django, , , Django.

, - , , Learn Python The Hard Way.

Ruby on Rails , Perl Catalyst' . , , , .

:

• PHP turtles
• PHP sadness
• PHP WTF
• YourLanguageSucks
• PHP in contrast to Perl
• Pi’s dense, angry, inspirational rant
• PHP is not an acceptable COBOL
• the PHP documentation
• PHP -
• , , Perl