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Contra ... Not searchable through search engines That's a ridiculous argument.

danielrhodes 15y ago
Not being SEO friendly is an interesting argument. While learning Python, when things like list comprehensions came up in code I was reading, it was very hard for me to figure out how it worked when I couldn't Google the syntax.
- davidbalbert 15y ago
  I've always wanted a search engine that is optimized for searching for code embedded in web pages. AFAIK google code search isn't really an option because it only searches through code, not through blog posts, stack overflow, and other pages with code in them. As far as language design goes though, I'd rather use a language that's optimized for writing code than for searching for it :).
prodigal_erik 15y ago
You can't search for -1 either. Are they going to switch to negate_number(ONE, true) for people who haven't learned that syntax? (The "true" causes the value to be returned rather than printed, obviously.)
astrodust 15y ago
SEO driven language design. Now I've seen everything.
app 15y ago
I think "search engines" might be a little misleading, it's not readily grepable locally either.
- oinksoft 15y ago
  But that is common to most languages. Arrays are something fundamental enough to warrant a place in language syntax.
beaumartinez 15y ago
> That's a ridiculous argument. Considering how widely taught (and self-taught) PHP is, I think that's pretty important, if only from a business perspective―if people don't learn your language, they don't buy your licensed books, and they don't need your technical support because they never built anything with it.
- mcantelon 15y ago
  I've used PHP for ~12 years and never found myself searching for something involving an instance of array syntax.
jemfinch 15y ago
Not when you consider how a large number of PHP programmers "program" on a day-to-day basis.
- etfb 15y ago
  Can you imagine what PHP would be like if the developers insisted on pandering to the lowest common denominator like that? Oh, wait...
  - astrodust 15y ago
    Oh no.
- laacz 15y ago
  Well, python or javascript does not suffer from this, does it? And, I cant, actually, think of any case where code search would require "Array" term. On the second thought - if PHP would at last consider converting or storing everyhting as an object ("".length or [].walk()), this would cause a problem. Still, see my first sentence.

Not being SEO friendly is an interesting argument. While learning Python, when things like list comprehensions came up in code I was reading, it was very hard for me to figure out how it worked when I couldn't Google the syntax.

davidbalbert 15y ago
I've always wanted a search engine that is optimized for searching for code embedded in web pages. AFAIK google code search isn't really an option because it only searches through code, not through blog posts, stack overflow, and other pages with code in them. As far as language design goes though, I'd rather use a language that's optimized for writing code than for searching for it :).

prodigal_erik 15y ago

You can't search for -1 either. Are they going to switch to negate_number(ONE, true) for people who haven't learned that syntax? (The "true" causes the value to be returned rather than printed, obviously.)

astrodust 15y ago

SEO driven language design. Now I've seen everything.

app 15y ago

I think "search engines" might be a little misleading, it's not readily grepable locally either.

oinksoft 15y ago
But that is common to most languages. Arrays are something fundamental enough to warrant a place in language syntax.

beaumartinez 15y ago

> That's a ridiculous argument. Considering how widely taught (and self-taught) PHP is, I think that's pretty important, if only from a business perspective―if people don't learn your language, they don't buy your licensed books, and they don't need your technical support because they never built anything with it.

mcantelon 15y ago
I've used PHP for ~12 years and never found myself searching for something involving an instance of array syntax.

jemfinch 15y ago

Not when you consider how a large number of PHP programmers "program" on a day-to-day basis.

etfb 15y ago
Can you imagine what PHP would be like if the developers insisted on pandering to the lowest common denominator like that? Oh, wait...
- astrodust 15y ago
  Oh no.
laacz 15y ago
Well, python or javascript does not suffer from this, does it? And, I cant, actually, think of any case where code search would require "Array" term. On the second thought - if PHP would at last consider converting or storing everyhting as an object ("".length or [].walk()), this would cause a problem. Still, see my first sentence.