For your consideration today, Philip Olson has worked up a listing of twenty (humorous) possible reasons that the names of the PHP functions are weird.

Here are 20 possible reasons why PHP functions lack consistent names and parameters. Learning the definition for every PHP function is truly an amazing feat and I doubt this has been attempted or accomplished by anyone. At least, by any sane human. And references are named references because they are designed to be referenced, right?

Items on the list include:

• PHP likes BC
• PHP says all your namespace are belong to us
• PHP function naming algorithm still remains a secret and cannot be cracked
• PHP isn't designed to win a beauty contest