This article makes a great case WHY the pipe operator is useful, but why didn't they just rewrite those functions to support method chaining? ` $profit = [1, 4, 5] .loadSeveral() .filter(isOnSale()) .map(sellWidget()) .array_sum(); ` this has the side benefit of 'looking normal'

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wsatb 7 days ago | parent | next [-]

Backwards compatibility. The language has done a pretty amazing job at adding features over the last 10 years without really breaking a lot of old code. I believe PHP still runs about 75% of the internet, so that's pretty huge.

	▲	moebrowne 7 days ago \| parent [-]
		The Python 2 to 3 upgrade is a example of how important backwards compatibility is

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troupo 7 days ago | parent | prev [-]

Because pipes work on all functions, not just object methods. So your business logic, validations etc. don't have to be methods of the built-in objects.

And there's nothing abnormal about pipes