The first time I saw P++ my reaction was “meh, it is not going anywhere”. Anything breaks backward compatibility and abandons existing user base will get punished eventually. Python community took a decade to heal from the wound caused by Python3. In short, I believe it is not worth it to trade backward compatibility for language design purity. I also wrote a blog about Vue3 changes on its new functional APIs.

But the change of mind came after I read the FAQ about P++. There was one thing caught my eye. It is the rebranding of PHP. PHP as a language has been loathed by many. PHP has evolved a lot, but the name it had out there is still hateful. From where I can see, bashing PHP has long been an extracurricular activity by some younger generation programmers. If anything in the world could use a rebrand, that is certainly PHP.

So all in all, there is still a slim chance that P++ will make PHP great again.

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