In this new post to PHPMaster.com, Callum Hopkins takes a look at one of the more recently added features of the PHP language, traits an tries to determine if they're a good or bad thing for PHP development.

In early March 2012, the PHP Group announced the release of PHP 5.4. Developer eagerly anticipated the release because of the many new features 5.4 would bring, the most sought after being traits. [...] Traits have have been generally accepted by the PHP development community, mainly because it’s a feature that exists within other programming languages like Java, C++, and Python. [...] Are they a feature which will help raise the level of PHP development, or are they just a fad?

The starts with a few reasons why he thinks traits are bad like their potential for abuse and the difficulties that could be caused by using them instead of something like an interface. On the good side, though, he mentions things like allowing for "multiple inheritance" and their addition showing growth in the language.