It turns out that one of the problems with having global functions with very simple names like text is that beginners may accidentally overwrite them, and then become confused when they try using them.

This was first brought to our attention when a newcomer to p5 filed issue #1314.

Ultimately, the problem was fixed by PR #1318, which logs helpful warnings if the user overwrites global functions.

For example, the following sketch:

function setup() {
  text += "blarg";
}

logs this warning:

You just changed the value of "text", which was a p5 function.
This could cause problems later if you're not careful.

Hopefully this change will make it easier for users to debug their sketches.

A Note About Community

One of the particular things I like about this story is the way the p5 community responded to it. While many open-source projects would immediately dismiss an issue like #1314 as “user error” and be done with it, the p5 community instead helped the user debug their problem, and then wondered if there was a way to alleviate such a frustrating experience. Potential solutions were proposed, community members responded with helpful feedback, and the original bug reporter was treated like a valuable contributor (which they were!) rather than being dismissed as a noob.

I wish all open-source communities worked this way.