On Sat, 2004-05-08 at 03:19, Andi Gutmans wrote: > At 09:16 PM 5/7/2004 -0700, Sara Golemon wrote: > >Long ago I was told constants could only be scalars, so I accepted it. > >Certainly ZEND_FUNCTION(define) does the check to ensure it's a scalar, but > >why? > > > >For what I can tell a zend_constant is just a container for an ordinary zval > >which is refcounted and all that fun stuff. I don't see any obvious reason > >for this restriction, and my tests with those restrictions removed seem safe > >enough so far... Can someone spell it out for me with little words? > > I don't remember all of the reasons, but the main reason is that it just > makes sense (IMO). I think constant values should be easily seen when > reading through source code. Having to read logic to see what values are in > the constants doesn't make much sense to me. I'd use variables for that. > If we start talking about class constants then it's obviously even more > important for them to be constants. You can't evaluate values during the > class definition as you don't have variables defined yet. I wouldn't want > define() to behave different from const.
I always thought constants were about imposing an unchanging nature to the data and not about visual aesthetics when reading code :/ I too would like to see constant support of non-scalar values. Cheers, Rob. -- .------------------------------------------------------------. | InterJinn Application Framework - http://www.interjinn.com | :------------------------------------------------------------: | An application and templating framework for PHP. Boasting | | a powerful, scalable system for accessing system services | | such as forms, properties, sessions, and caches. InterJinn | | also provides an extremely flexible architecture for | | creating re-usable components quickly and easily. | `------------------------------------------------------------' -- PHP Internals - PHP Runtime Development Mailing List To unsubscribe, visit: http://www.php.net/unsub.php
