so because PHP, a language designed to make building web applications easier, disgusts you because it has a built-in function that facilitates a task which is often needed in web applications?<p>And you think this is inferior to other languages where you would have to write that yourself or pick one of dozens of unofficial implementations with bugs unknown to you?<p>One could blame PHP for not having namespaces, but certainly not for providing official implementations for often-used pieces of functionality (though in case of easter_date? How many functions with different functionality do you come up with that you would like to give the same name?)<p>(edit: I'm not trying to troll here. OP has said he was "disgusted" by the presence of easter_date and from that I was inferring that he would prefer PHP not to have easter_date, thus my assertion of PHP being "inferior" to other languages that lack easter_date. By no means did I want to sound rude just a bit cynical maybe. I apologize for that.)