When enableExceptions(false) actually silences them - PHP strikes again

Description

The image is a dark-mode screenshot of a social-media post by a user named “Arian van Putten (@ProgrammerDude).” The post reads in full: “$db->enableExceptions() disables exceptions in PHP as it takes an optional parameter $enable that defaults to false. This language is seriously ill.” Beneath the text are standard tweet metadata - timestamp “15:33 · 27/12/2023 from Earth,” view count “23 K Views,” and engagement counts showing 23 reposts, 4 quotes, 271 likes, and 14 bookmarks. The humor hinges on a mis-named PDO method whose default argument creates a double negative: calling enableExceptions() with no arguments actually *disables* exception throwing in PHP because the $enable flag defaults to false. Senior developers will recognize the API-design antipattern, the hazards of boolean default parameters, and the perennial complaint that PHP’s naming conventions feel like an archaeological dig through 25 years of backwards compatibility

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LanguageQuirks BadPractices NamingConventions APIDesignBestPractices DeveloperFrustration CodeQuality

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116

Anonymous ★ Top Pick Somewhere in the PHP core someone wrote `enableExceptions(false)` and thought, “Perfect - self-documenting code.”

Anonymous ★ Top Pick

Somewhere in the PHP core someone wrote `enableExceptions(false)` and thought, “Perfect - self-documenting code.”
Anonymous

After 20 years in the industry, I've learned that PHP's enableExceptions(false) is just the language's way of preparing us for production - where exceptions are enabled but error reporting is disabled, logs are write-only, and the only debugging tool is customer complaints
Anonymous

Ah yes, PHP's `enableExceptions($enable = false)` - because nothing says 'enable' quite like defaulting to 'disable'. It's the API design equivalent of a fire alarm that's off by default. At least it's consistently inconsistent with PHP's long tradition of making you question whether you're the one who's confused or if the language designers were just having a laugh. This is the kind of footgun that makes you appreciate languages where 'enable' actually means 'turn on' and not 'maybe turn on if you remember to pass true, otherwise definitely keep off'. It's like ordering a coffee and having to explicitly specify you want it hot, or it arrives frozen
Anonymous

PHP's enableExceptions(false): the API equivalent of a 'Do Not Enter' sign on the exception highway - silent crashes for all
Anonymous

Nothing says enterprise maturity like enableExceptions(false): a boolean trap preserving backward compatibility while maximally violating the Principle of Least Surprise
Anonymous

Only in PHP do you call enableExceptions() and, by default, get fewer exceptions - Boolean Trap meets naming inversion, the kind of DX that turns observability into an optional parameter
@claudio_tg 2y

Still better than Java
1. @dsmagikswsa 2y
  
  I doubt it... at least the namespace system in Java is much better than PHP....
  
  @RiedleroD 2y
  
  depends. better at making simple websites? definitely better at doing literally anything else? probably not
  
  @dsmagikswsa 2y
  
  people use JS for website nowadays...
  
  @RiedleroD 2y
  
  and people use pizza cutters to cut pizza, that doesn't mean they're actually good at that
  
  @RiedleroD 2y
  
  (yes, pizza cutters are absolutely worse at cutting pizzas that knives are if you don't sharpen them. and nobody does)
  
  @dsmagikswsa 2y
  
  I think JS is the knife and people keep cutting themselves and the people around...
  
  @RiedleroD 2y
  
  js is the pizza cutter, but they cut past the pizza and into the table php is a saber. I'm sure you can cut pizza better with that, but my god does it look silly
@Agent1378 2y

The PHP is fine. The script kiddy that used a function without consulting the manual (took code from so? ) - is a лох on the other hand
1. @sylfn 2y
  
  Counterintuitive functions, fucked up nuances, a lot of ways to get rid of one's leg...
  
  @sylfn 2y
  
  If you are masochistic, you can say PHP is fine --- just like that dog in the room full of fire
  
  @Agent1378 2y
  
  C/c++ described!
  
  @sylfn 2y
  
  C++ is fucked up too, lmao
  
  @Agent1378 2y
  
  Ok, out of interest, what is not?
  
  @sylfn 2y
  
  Any language is fucked up, ot certain extent
  
  @Zoom7654 2y
  
  at least there are pros :)
2. @purplesyringa 2y
  
  No, PHP is not fine. They could have avoided this problem by making the argument required. Other modifications are possible too, like using setExceptionsEnabled as opposed to enableExceptions, but the simplest one would suffice. And they didn't do even that...
  
  @RiedleroD 2y
  
  or make it default to true instead of false or call it disableExceptions php is troubled but it's still not as bad as js :3 *scuffle ensues*
  
  @AlexanderRomanov46 2y
  
  Read my comment above, girl
3. @AlexanderRomanov46 2y
  
  Never seen anything counterintuitive in php, 10 years in dev.
  
  @purplesyringa 2y
  
  you've got functions named strrev and str_pad, you've got many equivalent names like join and implode, you've got many tools for almost the same task like print_r and vardump, which provide their result via different methods (stdout and return value), and they all accept slightly different arguments (like str_contains($haystack, $needle) and in_array($needle, $haystack)), they sometimes return NULL and sometimes false and sometimes 0. Functions that may error typically return false on error, meaning that boolean functions have to return 1 or 0 on successful true/false result instead...
  
  @AlexanderRomanov46 2y
  
  Somehow it did not stop me to get the job done and deploy in production stuff that currently work in generate money and jobs.
  
  @purplesyringa 2y
  
  Right. It still isn't intuitive, though.
  
  @anatoli26 2y
  
  true story
  
  @anatoli26 2y
  
  are u still generating html by hand in php?
4. @kitbot256 2y
  
  Who блять expects ->enable() method to disable everything?
  
  @sylfn 2y
  
  a php developer
@Valithor 2y

I think the thing folks are also missing about this 'language' problem is that the code is referencing the functions of an object without even calling out the name of the class being used?? It's part of the SQLite3 extension and I don't even know anyone who uses it; The only ones I've seen people regularly use are either PDO or mysqli
1. @Agent1378 2y
  
  People are using native (no pdo) pgsql and oci classes, so maybe this too
@Valithor 2y

https://github.com/php/doc-en/blob/master/reference/sqlite3/sqlite3/enableExceptions.xml this method's class was made 8 years ago and nobody ever even made a pull request to change the name. People must not care enough.
1. @RiedleroD 2y
  
  > to change the name my person in christ, you can't just change a function's name
  
  @purplesyringa 2y
  
  You can though
  
  @RiedleroD 2y
  
  you can't just break back-compat, no
  
  @purplesyringa 2y
  
  You can in a major version
  
  @RiedleroD 2y
  
  if php breaks back-compat in a major version imma be majorly pissed, tell you what php is supposed to be a super stable language I expect my php7 stuff to work on php8 just the same
  
  @purplesyringa 2y
  
  Come on, they break backcompat all the time. Like, check out https://www.php.net/manual/en/migration83.php and other pages in the sidebar
  
  @kitbot256 2y
  
  Every php5.2>5.3>5.4 update was breaking something. Why 7>8 should differ?
  
  @RiedleroD 2y
  
  because I say so
2. @CodeProger 2y
  
  https://php.watch/versions/8.3/SQLite3-exception-improvements
@anatoli26 2y

seriously ill is the person who still uses php
@dsmagikswsa 2y

People judge a language by the weird implementation of a library is weird...
1. @purplesyringa 2y
  
  It's about the same in stdlib too though
  
  @dsmagikswsa 2y
  
  I don't know much php, but I think of people use PDO nowadays, right?
  
  @purplesyringa 2y
  
  I didn't mean just databases, sorry, I meant the whole stdlib
2. @RiedleroD 2y
  
  PDO is stdlib I think
  
  @RiedleroD 2y
  
  (and that looks like it's PDO)
@RiedleroD 2y

you scare me. I will absolutely not fight you. you're chaotic and unpredictable
@SheepGod 2y

and all i use is php and js 🥲
@kromberged 2y

Oh man, you don’t know fcking perl
1. dev_meme 2y
  
  Going that deep is a highway to a psychiatric hospital
  
  @purplesyringa 2y
  
  Perl's *cute*, but it sorta feels like I'm talking to a really dumb AI, but an AI nonetheless. It sorta tries to emulate what people would say in English, simplifying common tasks with stuff like unless and while (<>), but that's also what makes *reading* code difficult, and writing too, because you might want to use a construct Perl doesn't understand. But the same applies to GPT-based programming too, and I really don't understand why the latter is so popular while Perl is typically hated on.
  
  @sylfn 2y
  
  why not hate both
  
  @purplesyringa 2y
  
  Well I do, but I'm in the minority
  
  dev_meme 2y
  
  By GPT-based programming you mean the totally useless positions that even kids can go for prompt engineers?
  
  @RiedleroD 2y
  
  the hard part of being a prompt engineer is convincing your boss you're actually needed (because you're not)
  
  dev_meme 2y
  
  Guess it's not so hard, you have successfully convinced chatgpt to do what you need after all🙂
  
  @RiedleroD 2y
  
  "chatgpt, write me a reason why I should keep this job"
  
  @mira_the_cat 2y
  
  btw there were perl library to write perl code in latin
  
  @mira_the_cat 2y
  
  https://metacpan.org/dist/Lingua-Romana-Perligata/view/lib/Lingua/Romana/Perligata.pm
dev_meme 2y

Every language is fucked up in its own way, though some of them are leaning towards unfucking themselves while others go the opposite way, that's how you can choose a better one if you're not masochist
@RiedleroD 2y

🤭
@AlexanderRomanov46 2y

Its not about the language, its about that concrete Sqlite library implementation, that is extention to php, writen by someone. That gullible soy cant distinguish language and it's implementation.
@AlexanderRomanov46 2y

It's the same if you dive in shit written project and blame the language on it. Blame specific people, who did concrete shit. Even weak languages and platforms (php not one of them) can be used to write decent projects if you know wacha doing.
@AlexanderRomanov46 2y

They main problem with php is that, it was just a web template language and because there was no alternative, community turned it into general server language. Thats what some of the languages flaws come from. But the benefit of the rapid development outweighs all of them.
1. @anatoli26 2y
  
  that's true that at that distant point in the past php was mostly the only lang for the web, but 20 years passed already since then.. for those who're still using php I suggest you get familiar with rust. For webdev (and almost everything else) it's god-sent. Was writing backends in php for 10 years, 10 years ago.. only in nightmares I see php again
  
  @purplesyringa 2y
  
  Is Rust just as good for templates though?
  
  @anatoli26 2y
  
  what type of templates?
  
  @purplesyringa 2y
  
  You know, stuff like <title><?= get_title() ?></title> :)
  
  @purplesyringa 2y
  
  I meant any template language like jinja
  
  @anatoli26 2y
  
  😆 u don't do that anymore.. raw html is a no-go
  
  @purplesyringa 2y
  
  Yeah, yeah... What else do you use, SSR?
  
  @anatoli26 2y
  
  check this: https://dioxuslabs.com. Dioxus is a rust framework that allows you to write server and client components from within the same file, you just annotate that some func should run on the front and another on the back and this framework will create all the stuff needed to make a REST request from a browser to the server. And you can target all 6 platforms: 3 desktops (win, linux, mac), 2 mobile (iOS and android) and the web (browser), with practically no code change
  
  @AlexanderRomanov46 2y
  
  jizz, some another "new and fancy" framework that will die faster, than Ruby did. Probably it's not in the competence of it's developers to inject a variable into website, instead of "2023" literal.
  
  @anatoli26 2y
  
  sure, that's a huge conceptual error, i'll just through it away and get back to php
  
  @AlexanderRomanov46 2y
  
  Today every open-source product is still a product, like an Iphone. I just don't buy all that stuff that is written on their page, like "Install me, I am another silver bullet" Thx, I'll just stick with Flutter and PHP.
  
  @anatoli26 2y
  
  also you know that you actually put copyright year(s) for the year(s) when the stuff was written, not the current year automatically.. if nothing was written during 2024, no need to update anything. That shouldn't be done automatically
  
  @AlexanderRomanov46 2y
  
  If the content of their website will be updated, they should update the copyright date. Probably that didnt update their website for some months from now or just lazy.
  
  @anatoli26 2y
  
  Dioxus actually has 3 ways to render HTML (SSR with hydration on the client is one of them): https://dioxuslabs.com/learn/0.4/getting_started/choosing_a_web_renderer
  
  @anatoli26 2y
  
  and of course this is just one way of doing things.. you can do it in 2 other ways, see the docs 👆 about HTML renderers
  
  @anatoli26 2y
  
  + tailwind CSS framework (https://tailwindcss.com/docs/installation) for everything CSS (responsive designs, etc.)
  
  @anatoli26 2y
  
  So you write something like 👆this like that: pub fn App(cx: Scope) -> Element { render! { StoryListing { story: StoryItem { id: 0, title: "hello hackernews".to_string(), url: None, text: None, by: "Author".to_string(), score: 0, descendants: 0, time: chrono::Utc::now(), kids: vec![], r#type: "".to_string(), } } } }
  
  @anatoli26 2y
  
  though Rust vs C or PHP is a complete paradigm shift, so it'll take time to understand and get used to the new concepts and ways of solving things
  
  @AlexanderRomanov46 2y
  
  Well, I prefer "horizontal" self-development, not a "vertical", when you learn something over and over. I know one backend platform, no need to learn another. Better learn frontend, team management etc, to be able to know all the full cycle.
  
  @AlexanderRomanov46 2y
  
  Doubt that.
@AlexanderRomanov46 2y

I am sure I will find some "counterintuitive" stuff in any of the languages anyone likes. All the hate onto anything abstract, that cant answer back, like programming language or other nation, comes from people that just hate their lives.
@qtsmolcat 2y

Understandable
@anatoli26 2y

Check the docs: https://dioxuslabs.com/learn/0.4/guide/your_first_component
@anatoli26 2y

so you target all the 6 platforms from the same codebase with no effort
1. @purplesyringa 2y
  
  oof, i just hope platform support is not *equally bad*
  
  @anatoli26 2y
  
  What do you mean?
  
  @purplesyringa 2y
  
  if you target multiple platforms with one codebase, it's likely that you won't have native interfaces on many of them; and if you do, they won't look equally good everywhere
  
  @anatoli26 2y
  
  the interface isn't done with native components, it's a webUI, exactly the same on all platforms, e.g. like Telegram
@anatoli26 2y

sometimes people just want to suffer for free.. 🤷‍♂️
1. @AlexanderRomanov46 2y
  
  I am sure HR's will be suffering in X years from now, when they try to find some adequate developers to maintain a project written on a dead platform.
@AlexanderRomanov46 2y

If you do this for yourself only, it's okay, if you make money on it. Commercial and enterprise development? No way.
1. @anatoli26 2y
  
  the dev effort and time-to-market speed of this stack is just so much better that php just can't compare.. and this is not to mention the security and performance
  
  @AlexanderRomanov46 2y
  
  Show me typical Request-Controller-Handler-Response example with this
  
  @anatoli26 2y
  
  Here https://dioxuslabs.com/docs/nightly/guide/en/fullstack/server_functions.html you have an explanation with an example of a client-server app with both components written in the same file
  
  @AlexanderRomanov46 2y
  
  So you do "routing", "request formalization / validation" and "response" in one file It's not SOLID
  
  @anatoli26 2y
  
  of course you can split everything the way you want, it's just a demonstration that the frameworks abstracts the separation between server and client and you work with it just as if it was a single monolithic app
  
  @AlexanderRomanov46 2y
  
  Sounds like nonsense "separation between server and client" "single monolithic app"
  
  @anatoli26 2y
  
  Also, in Rust in general you don’t need to validate client requests the way you do it in PHP. Rust is strongly typed language, so you just need to define the structures and the possible states, and then you just deserialize the request (or it fails and you reply with an error)
@anatoli26 2y

fn app(cx: Scope<usize>) -> Element { .. } runs on the client, async fn double_server(number: usize) -> Result<usize, ServerFnError> { .. } runs on the server
@anatoli26 2y

The communication between the client and the server is done 100% by the framework, for the developer it's like the same executable and you just call a local function
@anatoli26 2y

ok, stay with php, I see the Rust paradigm shift is not for you
@anatoli26 2y

Though with Dioxus you don’t need even that, nor the routing as you know it, it abstracts you from the client-server separation and allows you to write it as if it were a single app (i.e. without a server)
@anatoli26 2y

I already said that learning Rust implies a paradigm shift and this is what makes it somehow complex to learn. You can’t write something more complex than helloworld without extensive reading of the docs and understanding of its paradigm, that’s why it has a steep learning curve.. I’d say it’s more complex to grasp than C - you should understand process memory layout better that when writing in C, though most of the time you don’t touch memory directly
@anatoli26 2y

But once you understand it, it’s pure pleasure to use it from all points of view: ease of use, speed of development, developer’s efficiency, correctness of code, performance, security..
@anatoli26 2y

And with WebAssembly and WebGL (and already WebGPU) you can run things like Quake and AutoCAD in a web browser or webview elements on desktops and mobile, i.e. there's absolutely no limit to what you can achieve in visual aspect and UX, your creativity is the only limit
@nepalymiynik 2y

I'll never back to that shit again

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When enableExceptions(false) actually silences them - PHP strikes again

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