Consistency: The design must not be overly inconsistent. Consistency can be sacrificed for simplicity in some cases, but it is better to drop those parts of the design that deal with less common circumstances than to introduce either complexity or inconsistency in the implementation.
. . .
I don't know about you, but IMHO, this is PHP in a nutshell.
If you had read some of the criticisms of PHP that had been posted to HN (like http://me.veekun.com/blog/2012/04/09/php-a-fractal-of-bad-de..., which was even linked to in the current article), you'd realize that PHP is nowhere near consistent. I'm not sure simplicity, correctness or completeness apply either. I think the only thing PHP has going for it is momentum (in having a large userbase and being installed almost everywhere).
PHP's inconsistencies are minor. The problem with quoting the fractal article is at least a third of it is totally wrong and another third is misunderstandings by the author.
. . .
I don't know about you, but IMHO, this is PHP in a nutshell.
If you had read some of the criticisms of PHP that had been posted to HN (like http://me.veekun.com/blog/2012/04/09/php-a-fractal-of-bad-de..., which was even linked to in the current article), you'd realize that PHP is nowhere near consistent. I'm not sure simplicity, correctness or completeness apply either. I think the only thing PHP has going for it is momentum (in having a large userbase and being installed almost everywhere).