>Perhaps because some on HN are computer scientists, so to convince them it takes actual numbers and not some anecdotal evidence of what you personally use.
And then goes on to say:
>HHVM doesn't have that large a community (mostly FB people), is not installed in the overwhelming majority of hosts, still has compatibility issues, has few posts about it, there are very few mentions of companies using it, and, for what it is, has been largerly ignored in the whole PHP community (forums, etc).
The difference is that I gave objective and easily checkable statements.
References? I referred to specific items (hosts supporting it: just check the top 10 shared hosting providers), mentions of companies using it (how many have you seen on HN?), compatibility issues (those are documented on the project page), etc.
All of those are references to data sources you can actually check.
I'm not going to crunch the numbers for you, but unlike the parent, you don't have to take my word for it.
Pointing to the data themselves is actually more scientific than the "references to data", if by that you mean some websites and news sources feeding you with ready made data points ("20% of developers are thinking of adopting HHVM, we know, we asked 100 of our pals").
And then goes on to say:
>HHVM doesn't have that large a community (mostly FB people), is not installed in the overwhelming majority of hosts, still has compatibility issues, has few posts about it, there are very few mentions of companies using it, and, for what it is, has been largerly ignored in the whole PHP community (forums, etc).
With zero references to any data.