Hack: a new programming language for HHVM

Post by semoore95 » Tue, Mar 25, 2014, 5:00 AM UTC

cybernytrix wrote: post #405

lectrick wrote: post #230

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Given a programming task, it will be written faster, easier, and in a more maintainable and less bug-prone fashion if it is not PHP. The opposite opinion is basically indefensible. Sure, you can still dig a trench with a spoon (and if you have enough money to wield a bunch of workers with a spoon), even if a shovel would do a better job. Let's begin. 1) PHP autocraptastically converts strings that look like numbers,…

I think most of you guys are missing a crucial thing here -- how decisions get made. Facebook had two options: 1.) Rewrite all the PHP code in Java/Ruby/C++/whatever 2.) Write HHVM/Hack/etc to transparently convert the existing PHP code. Option #2 ended up getting a lot of publicity for the engineers. If they chose option #1, not only is it a lot of hard boring and possibly error prone work, there is no chance for an…