Doesn't seem to be a compelling reason to add this special-case restriction at this time, and there appear to be ways to work around it anyway, so let's not play the arms race. :)
static function pad( $string, $length, $padding = '0', $direction = STR_PAD_RIGHT ) {
$lengthOfPadding = mb_strlen( $padding );
if ( $lengthOfPadding == 0 ) return $string;
-
- // Thwart attempts to use this function to truncate strings.
- // We don't want people implementing ParserFunctions in template,
- // for performance and usability reasons.
- if ($lengthOfPadding > $length && $string == '') return $string;
# The remaining length to add counts down to 0 as padding is added
$length = min( $length, 500 ) - mb_strlen( $string );