On Mon, 18 Aug 2025 at 17:18, Christian Schneider <cschn...@cschneid.com> wrote:
> Am 18.08.2025 um 15:36 schrieb Rowan Tommins [IMSoP] <imsop....@rwec.co.uk > >: > > A developer coming to PHP from any combination of JavaScript, Perl, C#, > Java, VisualBasic, Python, Ruby, Swift, Elixir, Dart, Rust, even Excel ... > is going to look first for a function called "split" or some variation of > that. If they have any common sense, they'll know they need to look up > exactly what arguments it needs, and what options it provides. > > I don't think people nowadays search through documentation for a specific > function name. > I am pretty confident that people will either Google/DDG/... or ask an AI > chat something like "How do I split a string in PHP?" which gives a > complete code example including parameter order. > > > If we don't want to add an alias, we should probably add a fake manual > entry pointing people in the right direction, like we have for "delete": > https://www.php.net/delete > > This would IMHO be better suited for a tutorial / learning website, I am > not convinced that we need to extend the reference documentation (or even > the language) with entries of synonyms/aliases people might be looking for. > > So, in short, that's a -1 for a split alias from me. > > Regards, > - Chris > Personally, after 15+ years with PHP, I never know which one I need: implode or explode, neither name makes intuitive sense to me and I do an in-ide doc lookup to see if I got the right one every time. Making a programming language intuitive and self-explanatory in ENGLISH (i.e. not in javascript, not in php), makes it more efficient - and more loved. I think this alias is definitely a worthwhile addition.
