On 15 June 2024 18:39:20 BST, Valentin Udaltsov <udaltsov.valen...@gmail.com>
wrote:
>PHP does not have internal/private functions.
>Very often I use functions for really simple things like `array_flatten`
>(and register them via composer.json.autoload.files). But when the function
>requires decomposition to smaller ones, I switch to a static class with one
>public and some private static methods.
Namespace visibility or a native "internal" attribute is something that would
be really useful, I think, because it would be able to apply to whole classes
as well as functions and constants. It would also allow you to make the
refactoring you mention without having to switch all calls from Foo\bar() to
Foo::bar()
In general, I think PHP should embrace the concept of "packages" much more -
for larger apps, there's a much greater scope for performance if OpCache could
analyse multiple files at once, and make assumptions about them. (A
consideration which didn't apply when autoloading was first introduced.)
With that in mind, instead of function autoloading, maybe we should think about
an "include_all" function, which accepted a wildcard/glob pattern. That would
make it much easier to use preloading, and move away from the "one class per
file" layout, without blessing an official tool like Composer, or a particular
file layout.
Put together, those features would provide a powerful alternative to a lot of
static classes - i.e. those where no state or inheritance is required, just a
grouping of code.
Regards,
Rowan Tommins
[IMSoP]
