In almost every programming language, parsing errors tend to be boring, and PHP is not going to be an exception… unless you get one of these:
Parse error: syntax error, unexpected T_PAAMAYIM_NEKUDOTAYIM
If you aren’t aware, what it means is “Oh, there’s an unexpected double colon where it shouldn’t have appeared”.
But even if it’s a bit obscure, sometimes it’s funny to get this error. Just for contrasting with all the plainly boring rest, like unexpected ‘}’, unexpected ‘,’ … all that. Even more funny is that those characters (‘::’) are also defined as T_DOUBLE_COLON. But why did the programmers decide to use the cryptic error message is something of a mistery for me yet.
The first time I got the error I thought I had found an easter egg! Either that, or the php interpreter had gone nuts…
Madieta
It’s hebrew!
http://www.webmasterworld.com/forum88/5127.htm
paladin:
“it IS Hebrew, written in English letters. Remember that the current PHP is based on the ZEND engine. I don’t remember off thge top of my head the names of the 2 developers (Zeev and Andy I think), but I remember that they are Jewish/Hebrew names.”
JerryOdom:
“Its written by Israelis. Guess they missed that one in translation.”
ps
its just the way compilers/interpreters are built..
dust
Yep got that egg too lol.
I was stunt and sad i could not call my function using “::” i hate that “->”
shaunxcode
I managed to get it with a foreach loop setting the value to reference but forgetting the $. i.e.: foreach($items as &item){} will yield said error.
Valery Buchinsky
The first time I saw this error year or two ago I thought “Damn! What would that be” and … called my collegues arround the office to come and see that. :) Then after a lot of laughing I Googled and found the answer. :)
Another good error is Apache’s default “The server made a boo boo!”, don’t you think? :)
Cristian
Can you imagine the guy that saw this error an had no Google to see what the hell was it?
I bet he shot himself XD
sole
hahaha yes! either that or he just quit the whole programming business :D
hansi
awsome… just came across the same error!
the php docs say that:
The Scope Resolution Operator
(also called Paamayim Nekudotayim)
or in simpler terms, the double colon, [...]
http://www.php.net/::
Guess that explains it :)
Kris
I just found it too — awesome!
Estigy
I bet they had to add the name to the PHP doc for the only reason that it can be found via the search by users who stumble upon this error message. :-)
sole
Haha! :)