PHP – Optional Parentheses in Function Calls

This is a known bug which isn't related to PHP, but inherant to the windows API used by PHP. The random function of this API is very bad.

This problem will not exist on Linux or MacOS (or any other system).

You can learn more about this here: http://cod.ifies.com/2008/05/php-rand01-on-windows-openssl-rand-on.html

If it is more visible with some value, this is mostly because of the dimensions of the image, and the clear lines formed by the pattern. This is definitively linked to our perception, some patterns looks more random than others.

The human brain random function is very buggy. What we see as random or not isn't reliable at all. This is a known phenomenon but off topic here.

Not a "Traditional Overloading" full support, only partial.

A DEFINITION: "Traditional Overloading" provides, when calling method, the ability to have multiple methods with the same name but different quantities and types of arguments. For method declaration, it provides the option to express a separate/isolated declaration for each overloaded function.

Note: the second part of this definition is usually associated with statically-typed programming languages which do type checking and/or arity checking, to choose the correct declaration. PHP is not a statically-typed language, it is dynamic, and use weak typing.

PHP SUPPORT:

• YES, provides the ability to call multiple methods with the same name but different quantities. See func_get_args and @rajukoyilandy answer, we can use f(x) and f(x,y).

• YES, provides the ability to call multiple methods with the same name but different types. Se internal use of gettype in the method.

  • BUT for references... Only variables can be passed by reference, you can not manage a overloading for constant/variable detection.

• NOT provides the ability to declare multiple methods with the same name but different quantities. This is because we can call f(x) and f(x,y) with the same f declaration.

• NOT provides the ability to declare multiple methods with the same name but different types. This is because PHP compiler must interpret f($integer,$string) as the same function that f($string,$integer).

See also PHP5 overloading documentation for the "non-traditional overloading" explanations.