PHP.reboot - are you kidding me?
Something just cropped up today on HN about a "reboot of PHP" - being a PHP fanboy, I decided to go look. I've had my own ideas on what I'd change (or rather, just clean up, optimize, and purge) from PHP.
The project is here: https://code.google.com/p/phpreboot/
Why is this an issue? Well, for one, it's NOT A REBOOT OF PHP. It's a frickin' Java-based re-implementation of some PHP ideas and function names with a completely different syntax, and at the end of the day, it has 99.9% nothing in common with PHP.
Why do people develop in PHP? Because it is PHP. Stop trying to make PHP more like Java, more JSON-y, etc. Why did it become the world's most popular language? Besides for being easy to pick up (too easy, sometimes, which leads to a bunch of garbage and unsecure code), it got there because of what it is.
This "php.reboot" project is just trying to use PHP's popularity and function names to get people to check it out. PHP doesn't have XML/JSON/SQL style constructs (although the new array syntax sure does look like an attempt to emulate JSON, cough), it has structure - that's what "$" and ";" are for - denoting specific constructs in the language. If people don't want to develop using "$" or ";" go switch to another language that doesn't, that is already established.
I am tired of seeing blog posts and other items pop up every so often "why PHP wants to be more like Java" or "10 things PHP can learn from Ruby" - if you're trying to adapt PHP to another language, just use the other language. Period.
Some of the ideas in this project might be neat, or good; but in the end, it's not a "reboot of PHP" and stop labeling it as one.