> on a much smaller scale

Since we don't probably have any formal metric for that, I don't see how we can settle this argument.

By subjective feelings, I disagree.

Python. WinAPI. Enough?

> they aren't consistent

Nobody ever is! You know why? Because many functions are direct copies from the C stdlib, for example. Or from W3 DOM or other inter-language API standards. And different standards - gulp - are *inconsistent*!

Yes, it's as simple as that.

(And "native" PHP functions are more or less ok)

Any sufficiently useful in real life set of libraries suffers from the same problems.

> Ironically all this time I've been avoiding the preg functions because I figured they were the more likely candidates to go away.

Sorry this is short, but are you *that* dumb?

Anyway, I remember seeing (in official docs) the note that ereg functions will occasionally be dropped like 5 years ago when I first started with PHP. And the fact that PCRE functions are *much, much* more powerful is very obvious.

I also heard that they *share* FP math units between CPU and GPU.

> Times have changed, and we have better programming languages available to us.

That's interesting. And if I'd ask you to name another compiled language with dynamic message routing/dispatch it would be what? C libs compatibility is desired.

> Science is purely objective

But scientific community is far from. And you need publications and grants.

How can a *format* be open sourced? It's like saying that JPG or DOC are "open source". If you're talking about particular implementation, then please be more clear.

As a side note / example:

Statement: "H264 is open source (see x264 project)"

Is true: Y/N?

Uhm, haven't you just redefined GPL?

My router runs Linux. Can I transfer the firmware from one router to another without Linksys (or whatever) trying to stop me? No.

I hate the article for not stating whether those are key frames or P-frames.

Hey, what if I chose FreeBSD? It sure is better for a Flash developer, *right*?

> Better that the consumers of a product causing environmental destruction

That would be everyone then. You don't think that the food from around the world and all kinds of toys from China in your neighborhood store are brought there by fairies, do you? And that's only transportation.

> apocalypse

Well, if uncapped it is bound to start burning at some time, isn't?

1 And the fifth angel blew his trumpet, and I saw a star fallen from heaven to earth, and he was given the key of the shaft of the bottomless pit; 2 he opened the shaft of the bottomless pit, and from the shaft rose smoke like the smoke of a great furnace, and the sun and the air were darkened with the smoke from the shaft.