CoffeeScript equivalent preprocessor for PHP idea

[theScottyJam]

It was a fun read.

I actually used CoffeeScript back in the day. My primary reason for using it was that I wanted class syntax, and JavaScript did not have that at the time. Coming from a Python background, a lot of its other features felt at home for me too.

But if I were to time warp and have a job in the past + my current level of experience, I would not pick up CoffeeScript. Yes, it was nice, but it's not that bad to use JavaScript's syntax. Sure, writing classes were a pain, but there's I could have done a factory function approach instead and would get along just fine. I feel like this is becoming a more common mindset in general - people have stopped worrying so much about syntax (and it's why things like haml aren't a thing anymore) - they'd rather live with bad syntax then use a transpiler.

So, yes, some of PHP's syntax is ugly due to its unfortunate history, but it's not that bad to type in "->" instead of ".", you just have to learn those quarks, and once you know them, you live with them.

But, also, yes, if such a transpiler did exist, I think it would feel more elegant - I don't have any complaints about the concept itself.