Why PHP file functions cannot finally evolve?

Seriously, why? Why, in the name of all what is holy in software development, do we still have to dance with the @ symbol and endless if ($result === false) checks when dealing with files? It's 2025 (or whatever year it is when you're reading this), and we're still playing whack-a-mole with warnings instead of having the clean, predictable behavior of exceptions.

Here it is, the silent treatment. We're just going to pretend that nothing bad could possibly happen. Because, you know, suppressing errors is always a good idea. (Spoiler alert: it's not).

$file = @fopen("myfile.txt", "r");
if ($file === false) { 
  // Oh crap, something went wrong. But what? Who knows! 
  // Maybe the file doesn't exist. Maybe the server is on fire. 
  // Time to consult the PHP manual for the 57 possible reasons why fopen() might fail. 
  // And then write a dozen different error handling scenarios. Fun times!
}

This is not error handling. This is error guessing. Let's be honest, symbol @ smells. It's the equivalent of saying "I know something might go wrong here, but I'm just going to ignore it and hope for the best."

Contrast this with a sane language, where working with file would throw an exception if something went wrong. FileNotFoundException, PermissionDeniedException, DiskFullException – beautiful, descriptive, and catchable. We could wrap the file operation in a try-catch block, handle specific errors gracefully, and write much cleaner code.

Let's leave @ symbol and false check where they belong: in the dusty archives of bad programming practices. The future of file handling shouldn't involve guesswork and suppressed warnings. It should be clean, clear, and exception-based. Please, PHP, for the sake of our sanity, give us exceptions!

Comments

[david duymelinck]

Have you seen the SplFileObject class.
It has exceptions.

[Michal Štefaňák]

It seems like I see it now. Even after all these years there are hidden gems for me. Thanks

[david duymelinck]

SPL is something a lot of developers overlook, while it contains great stuff.
Most just use packages. Which has benefits, but also an extra dependency.