Need to let loose a primal scream without collecting footnotes first? Have a sneer percolating in your system but not enough time/energy to make a whole post about it? Go forth and be mid: Welcome to the Stubsack, your first port of call for learning fresh Awful you’ll near-instantly regret.

Any awful.systems sub may be subsneered in this subthread, techtakes or no.

If your sneer seems higher quality than you thought, feel free to cut’n’paste it into its own post — there’s no quota for posting and the bar really isn’t that high.

The post Xitter web has spawned soo many “esoteric” right wing freaks, but there’s no appropriate sneer-space for them. I’m talking redscare-ish, reality challenged “culture critics” who write about everything but understand nothing. I’m talking about reply-guys who make the same 6 tweets about the same 3 subjects. They’re inescapable at this point, yet I don’t see them mocked (as much as they should be)

Like, there was one dude a while back who insisted that women couldn’t be surgeons because they didn’t believe in the moon or in stars? I think each and every one of these guys is uniquely fucked up and if I can’t escape them, I would love to sneer at them.

(Credit and/or blame to David Gerard for starting this.)

PHP 8.5 introduces a variety of compelling features. As a library author, I'm particularly thrilled by the addition of the built-in #[NoDiscard] attribute, enabling developers to mark a function or method's return value as important.

Tip: You can read the full RFC at wiki.php.net.

How does the NoDiscard attribute work?

Using #[NoDiscard] is straightforward—simply annotate your function or method. For example, marking a function that returns critical operation results, such as status flags or error messages, helps prevent accidental omission or unnoticed errors:
<?php

#
[NoDiscard]function processStuff(): array
{
return [];
}
Now, if the function is called without using its return value, PHP generates the following warning:
The return value of function processStuff() should either be used or intentionally ignored by casting it as (void).

Customizing the Warning Message

You can provide a custom message for greater clarity:
<?php

#[NoDiscard("because this is a batch processing function, and if any of the items fail, it returns the error details in an array instead of throwing an exception.")]
function processStuff(): array
{
return [];
}
This results in a more personalized warning:
The return value of function processStuff() is expected to be consumed, because this is a batch processing function, and if any of the items fail, it returns the error details in an array instead of throwing an exception.

Suppressing the Warning

Besides using the returned value (assigning or otherwise processing it), you can suppress this warning in several ways:
<?php

@processStuff(); // Error suppression operator
(void)processStuff(); // Explicit void cast
$_ = processStuff(); // If you're coming from Go ;)
However, beware of OPCache optimizations. If OPCache detects an unused instruction, it might optimize away the call, leading to inconsistencies between development and production environments.
<?php

(bool)processStuff(); // OPCache may ignore this because the result isn't used.
Using (void) explicitly is safe since OPCache will not optimize away explicit void casts.

Where is it used?

In addition to being usable in your own code, the #[NoDiscard] attribute is automatically applied to specific core PHP functions/methods, notably:

• flock(): Ignoring its false return value can lead to difficult-to-diagnose concurrency issues.
• Setters of DateTimeImmutable: These methods do not modify the original instance but return a new one. Ignoring this return value does nothing, a common pitfall for new developers.

When is the Warning Triggered?

PHP triggers the warning immediately before the function call executes, offering a significant safety benefit. If your application converts warnings into exceptions (as Symfony does by default), the potentially dangerous code never executes:
<?php

set_error_handler(function (int $errno, string $errstr, string $errfile, int $errline) {
throw new ErrorException($errstr, 0, $errno, $errfile, $errline);
});

$file = fopen("/tmp/test.txt", "r+");
flock($file, LOCK_EX);
// Safe to write to the file! Or is it? We don't know because we ignored the return value of flock()
fwrite($file, "Hello world!");
fclose($file);

In this example, the flock() is never called! The warning prevents the execution of potentially harmful code, ensuring issues are caught early during development.

Constraints

The use of #[NoDiscard] comes with some logical constraints:

• It cannot be applied to functions with a void or never return type, as enforcing usage of a non-existent return value doesn't make sense.
• It cannot be used on property hooks (getters/setters), as reading a property inherently means you're working with its value. Ignoring it would lead to unnecessary confusion and complexity.

So, what do you think? I personally find the #[NoDiscard] attribute powerful and particularly valuable for library authors. I'm eagerly awaiting PHP 8.5 to incorporate this new feature into my own projects!

Full translation:

By 2030, all SAP company cars are to be electric. The fleet manager of the German software company told Handelsblatt about the experiences gained so far during the transition.

According to the report, the German fleet currently consists of around 19,000 cars, of which just under 5,000 are purely electric. Steffen Krautwasser reported that the selection and availability have improved significantly recently. However, there is still a lack of more affordable family cars on offer.

Electric car industry leader Tesla is not represented in the SAP fleet – ‘not for political reasons, but because the residual values are difficult to calculate given the brand's erratic pricing policy and because the workshop network is still too patchy for SAP's requirements,’ writes Handelsblatt.

In addition to the still high prices, range is considered one of the biggest obstacles for electric cars. However, Krautwasser does not see the latter as a general problem. Concerns among employees that they would no longer be able to get to customers quickly and safely have not materialised. ‘Well over 95 percent of our current electric car users want another purely electric vehicle as their next car,’ he reported.

For acceptance, it is ‘extremely important’ that charging at work runs as smoothly as possible. To this end, SAP is now expanding the infrastructure for supplying electricity to electric cars at its locations. There are currently 1,750 SAP charging points at 14 German locations. In the medium term, the network is expected to grow to 3,700 charging points.

‘We have found that you don't need a charging station at the location for every car,’ said the SAP fleet manager. Employees work from home or at customer sites, charge on the road or drive routes where charging once a week is usually sufficient. The company itself prefers charging to take place in the employee car park: This is because electricity for large customers on site is usually cheaper than on the road or at employees' homes. Employees are explicitly made aware of this.