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I think this is a step in the right direction. PHP's refusal to break BC in the stdlib, among other things is probably the biggest impediment to the language be

I think this is a step in the right direction. PHP's refusal to break BC in the stdlib, among other things is probably the biggest impediment to the language being more widely accepted. By breaking compatibility with PHP, Hack is going to be able to adapt more quickly and create a stronger language. Hopefully, Facebook will have the wherewithal to promote Hack to PHP (and other) developers, and grow the ecosystem as it can.

burnte 8y ago
> PHP's refusal to break BC in the stdlib, among other things is probably the biggest impediment to the language being more widely accepted. PHP is one of the most widely used languages on the web. Their backward compatibility is absolutely part of that reason, too. Refusal to break compatibility may be holding it back in some technical areas, but it's certainly not hurting the language in popularity and use.
- debacle 8y ago
  There's no reason not to break BC in 7.4. The people still running 5.3 aren't going to not upgrade to 7.4 because you fixed the array functions.
  - ars 8y ago
    That is a completely false sentence. People develop PHP sites, launch them and expect them to work, even if the server is upgraded to the latest PHP. Breaking their code on a PHP upgrade is a great way to strand them on old unsupported versions of PHP. Not everyone has resources to change things that used to work because of some "array function" change that doesn't really make any difference.
andybak 8y ago
> ... break BC in the stdlib ... (please don't abbreviate when it's unclear. You saving some typing means lots of people have to pause to parse your TLAs...)
- debacle 8y ago
  Were you able to suss the definitions or do you still need clarity?
  - andybak 8y ago
    I guessed "backwards compatibility. Others might not. But in either case it means every single reader has to pause and make extra mental effort to save you about one second extra of typing. :)

burnte 8y ago

> PHP's refusal to break BC in the stdlib, among other things is probably the biggest impediment to the language being more widely accepted. PHP is one of the most widely used languages on the web. Their backward compatibility is absolutely part of that reason, too. Refusal to break compatibility may be holding it back in some technical areas, but it's certainly not hurting the language in popularity and use.

debacle 8y ago
There's no reason not to break BC in 7.4. The people still running 5.3 aren't going to not upgrade to 7.4 because you fixed the array functions.
- ars 8y ago
  That is a completely false sentence. People develop PHP sites, launch them and expect them to work, even if the server is upgraded to the latest PHP. Breaking their code on a PHP upgrade is a great way to strand them on old unsupported versions of PHP. Not everyone has resources to change things that used to work because of some "array function" change that doesn't really make any difference.

andybak 8y ago

> ... break BC in the stdlib ... (please don't abbreviate when it's unclear. You saving some typing means lots of people have to pause to parse your TLAs...)

debacle 8y ago
Were you able to suss the definitions or do you still need clarity?
- andybak 8y ago
  I guessed "backwards compatibility. Others might not. But in either case it means every single reader has to pause and make extra mental effort to save you about one second extra of typing. :)