It should throw an error, not return false. This goes back to PHP's "try as hard as possible to run the script" mentality.

The author doesn't need to know C++ to comment on PHP's failings, does he? And he knows private/public/protected— you even quote him using them. You're probably not familiar with Python, but there aren't any private methods (aside from double underscored-prefixed methods, but that's not entirely the same). That's where he was coming from. It's not that he doesn't know those terms; it's that he thinks that's how they should work.

Judging by your other responses, you're quick to toss out whether someone is a "PHP programmer" or not, as if that has any bearing on their argument. I'll tell you right now, I work in PHP five days a week, and I agree with most all of eevee's points.