Interested to see where this series goes. The author has chosen PHP to illustrate these examples, but the problem exists in all languages to some degree and more so in the "complicated" or kitchen sink languages. C++, like PHP, is another kitchen sink language which exhibits this dialect phenomenon to high degree.

One of the biggest gripes I have with C++ is that "subset of C++" is a commonly thrown around phrase to say dialect without necessarily using the word "dialect". Yet, I have in the last decade seen no list of C++ dialects, descriptions of any dialects, or even anyone who has given a name to a single dialect. It hides away their hard work of establishing a praxis and sets up the conditions for newcomers to toil away recreating their own dialect all while trying to actually get stuff done.