Actually you can use the <?= syntax to make it even more concise:
function o($name) { return(htmlspecialchars($name));}
<?=o($name)?>
which lo, and behold, looks a lot like the rails candidate below.
function o($name) { return(htmlspecialchars($name));}
<?=o($name)?>
which lo, and behold, looks a lot like the rails candidate below.
<?php o($name); ?>
I've used this exact function in my own code, though I call it "h". Really sucks that we have to do this - not to mention that PHP's global namespace for functions means it's better to have long names that are more likely not to clash with third party code.