There has been some minor discussions about short tags recently in other threads, saying that they are bad because of compability issues, in case some script is moved to a server where short tags has been disabled.

I'm just curious, does the short tag setting also include the short constructs like if, else, foreach etc. (which I find very helpful at times)? If you don't know what i'm talking about ('cause I don't really know what they're called) i mean the ability to write like this:

PHP Code:

<?php if($some_var == 'some_value'): ?>
   <p>This is noraml html code</p>
<?php else: ?>
   <p>Hmm, seems some variable doesn't have some value.</p>
<?php endif; ?>

<?php foreach($alphabet as $letter): ?>
   <div>
      <p><?=$letter?> is part of the alphabet!</p>
   </div>
<?php endforeach; ?>

Nope!

"Short tags" is using the '<?' opening delimiter instead of the '<?php' full delimiter.

Using the full opening delimiter '<?php' will ensure your script is portable.

And a quick note: enabling short tags at webserver level to cope with php that uses them just leads to other issues (says he after taking over thousands of lines of legacy code) (and wanting a quick fix).

At the risk of sounding like a broken record: Short tags are evil!

Even if you aren't writing portable code right now, using short tags is a habit. They have a way of creeping into your code even when you don't mean to use them and the issues they cause aren't always immediately apparent. Take the following code:

PHP Code:

<a href="<?=$link?>">My Link</a>

If you turn short tags off the above code won't generate an error message and you won't even see the raw PHP code when looking at the resulting page.

The alternate syntax for control flow statements is fine to use. Unlike short tags there is no way to disable it so using it doesn't create any compatibility issues.

Thanks for your answers!

I'm pretty sure that enabled/disabled short tags settings does not affect any type of syntax constructs.