>I have to wonder, how big is the overlap between people who understand and want to use algebraic datatypes, and people who program in PHP?
The same as people who understood functional programming, async/await/generators/ummitabilily/etc and who program in JavaScript?
JS was seen as for the lowliest of developers, but it has adopted (and people use) all those kinds of things.
Understanding is often a function of availability and/or fashion, and there's not some inherent reason PHP programmers are "dumber".
>At the same time, I don’t think PHP can ever catch up with high-level languages that were built on less shaky foundations (and cleaner syntax). So what’s the end goal here?
On one side, it already has (caught up).
On the other side, the point is moot. The end goal is that it's a very succesful language with millions of programmers and billions in projects done with it, and its team wants to keep improving it.
What did you imagine as some "end game"? Getting the node of approval from Haskellers?
The same as people who understood functional programming, async/await/generators/ummitabilily/etc and who program in JavaScript?
JS was seen as for the lowliest of developers, but it has adopted (and people use) all those kinds of things.
Understanding is often a function of availability and/or fashion, and there's not some inherent reason PHP programmers are "dumber".
>At the same time, I don’t think PHP can ever catch up with high-level languages that were built on less shaky foundations (and cleaner syntax). So what’s the end goal here?
On one side, it already has (caught up).
On the other side, the point is moot. The end goal is that it's a very succesful language with millions of programmers and billions in projects done with it, and its team wants to keep improving it.
What did you imagine as some "end game"? Getting the node of approval from Haskellers?