I used PHP awhile back, but how much of its inconsistencies can be resolved without fundamentally changing the language's positive features? That is, not caring about backward incompatibility. Like, I can't imagine the inconsistency of "==" has any bearing on PHP's flexibility.
If you don't care about backwards compatibility you leave a lot of users in the lurch. PHP4 to PHP5 took years to migrate over and Python 3 still hasn't taken over from Python 2. Perl 5 and 6.
If you can't get syntax/semantic changes adopted in a single language then getting a whole new language adopted is a non-starter.
I think the core PHP developers should take a long look at the inconsistencies of the language and formulate a plan to reduce/eliminate them without breaking backwards compatibility. In some cases, it should be relatively easy but in others it will be very difficult. The inconsistency of "==" would be hard to fix while making sure old code still runs correctly.
