Hacker Newsnew | past | comments | ask | show | jobs | submitlogin

Before you had to write:

  function is_not_numeric($num){
    !is_numeric($num);
  }

  array_map('is_not_numeric', array(1,3,5,'a','c',3));
The fact that php used to take a string as the callback and not an expression is seriously broken.

Now (presumably), one can write:

  array_map(function($x){ !is_numeric($x) }, array(1,3,5,'a','c',3));
Although, ideally it would be:

  array_map(!is_numeric, array(1,3,5,'a','c',3));


Right, I'm not arguing that anonymous first-class functions are useful, I'm just saying that I think there are so many other things that are seriously broken with PHP as to make this akin to worrying about having enough clean forks for a dinner party while your house is on fire.

I'm not just PHP-trolling here, either. There is a history in the PHP project of adding features to the language without any reference to how they will be made "safe". The PHP interpreter is notoriously unhelpful at catching even the simplest of bugs. This just seems like another ad-hoc feature added to the list of things that are likely to introduce subtle bugs that are undetectable until they are running on a production system somewhere.


Seriously. Anonymous functions without a sane lexical system is asking for trouble, though marking closure variables will mitigate the problems a little.

I agree that PHP's house is on fire, but PHP has such a big house that I'm not sure it's noticed yet.




Guidelines | FAQ | Lists | API | Security | Legal | Apply to YC | Contact

Search: