On: A reboot of PHP: keep the philosophy, improve the ...

[etfb]

Here's a contrived example to demonstrate the value of sigils:

    /* in version x of SFL (Sigil-Free Language) */

    school = get_school("Saint Fred's School For Girls");
    class = get_class(school, "Agricultural Studies", 12);
    yield = get_agricultural_yield(class, "Turnips", 2011);
    printf("The Year 12 Ag Studies class produced %d turnips in 2011", yield);

Now we try upgrading to version x+1 of SFL, which adds object-orientation and concurrency (it was a BIG upgrade!). Now three of the lines in that four-line program contain errors, because "class" and "yield" are no longer valid variable names, having been turned into keywords.

In a language with sigils, that's no problem. It also makes it easier (therefore faster) for syntax highlighting to spot where variables are used, without needing a full dictionary and an exact version number - that makes a difference for me as an Emacs user especially.

[Pheter → etfb]

While true, it's a very minor deal because the scenario you've described:

- Happens very rarely - Is trivially solved, even in a large codebase

[gnaritas → etfb]

You could just look at that as an argument against keywords, rather than for sigils, ala Smalltalk and Lisp.