Responses inline.

Adam Lang
Systems Engineer
Rutgers Casualty Insurance Company
http://www.rutgersinsurance.com
----- Original Message -----
From: "George Herson" <gherson@s...>
To: "professional php" <pro_php@p...>
Sent: Wednesday, December 27, 2000 12:07 PM
Subject: [pro_php] Is php buggy?


> Is it just me, or does php have more bugs than one would expect in a
> popular language?  And is this (the bugs) why perl is said (by even (php
> co-author) Rasmus Lerdorf) to be a better choice for implementing larger
> websites?

Porn sites get the most traffic than any other.  Most of them are on
Linux/Apache/PHP.  That right there is a pretty good assessment.

> I was really disappointed (and time-penalized) that I couldn't get
> session variables to work consistently in php4.0.3pl1.  Sometimes, not
> always, I couldn't just declare a session variable global in a function
> to access it--i had to copy it out of the $HTTP_SESSION_VARS array
> first.  And, in case you decide to just always use the
> $HTTP_SESSION_VARS array, don't: assigning to it will somewhat
> arbitrarily lose session data, in my experience.

Haven't used Sessions yet, sorry.
>
> Further, PHP's pg_exec (which executes an SQL command on a PostgreSQL
> database) has a basic problem: if called for a 2nd time w/in an included
> file's function, it fails.  This is with even a minimal test file.  The
> error message is "Warning: 1 is not a valid PostgreSQL link resource."
> Same result, no matter what i tried.  But the same code, when converted
> to a method, works.  I posted a note about this to php.net's annotated
> manual, but they evidently weren't interested, as it was deleted.

Are you sure it wasn't error on your part?  That warning (if I recall) means
a problem with the connection you passed.

>
> Another bad sign:  new functions are sometimes added w/o even a single
> example documenting them at php.net.

That's any programming language. :)  Microsoft has pretty good docs, and I
get pissed when I check help on VB functions and the example link is greyed
out.

> Is this just how open source quality control works?  Release beta code,
> and let time and the masses worry about fine-tuning the documentation
> and code?  (Wrox does a fine job documenting, but unfortunately not the
> features they haven't seen.)

Yes, some open source is that way.  Some people don't realise that free
means free.  I may not know enough C to help develop functionality in an
open source app, but I do spend a lot of time on news groups answering
questions and helping people.  That is my contribution.  The five (or
however many) core people developing can't do everything.  They are not
always getting paid.  A lot of people work 12 hours a day wearing a suit and
tie and doing other totally irrelevant things.  Then they come home and work
on stuff like this.  If you want better support, pay for it.
>
> With bugs comes increased need for a debugger, and therefore its absence
> in php4 is all the more acute.  (Nexidion.com has a niche IDE (Linux
> KDE) I haven't been able to test.)

Why are you bitching about a lack of a debugger when there is one out there
you haven't even tried yet?!?!
>
> george



--- 
NEED TECHNICAL TIPS, TOOLS, AND INSIGHTS?  Is FREE okay?
Visit EarthWeb for the latest in IT Management, Software Development, 
Web Development, Networking & Communications, and Hardware & Systems.  
Click on http://www.earthweb.com for FREE articles, tutorials,
and discussions from the experts.
---
You are currently subscribed to pro_php as: $subst('Recip.EmailAddr')
To unsubscribe send a blank email to leave-pro_php-$subst('Recip.MemberIDChar')@p2p.wrox.com