Resetting and moving the proposal writeup to a github hosted markdown file
here:
https://github.com/michael-lloyd-morris/php-modules-rfc/blob/main/php-modules.md
On Mon, May 5, 2025 at 12:44 AM Larry Garfield <la...@garfieldtech.com>
wrote:
>
>
> So before you get indignant and call me a liar ("You're 4 for 4 on
> falsehoods"), perhaps consider how someone you know is "more intelligent"
> than this can come away from your post understanding it so utterly
> differently than what you intended.
>
I'm sorry for doing that.
>
> From your follow up statements, it seems that what you are proposing is
> not "modules" in any sense used in any language I am familiar with.
> Rather, you're proposing a symbol table hack to get around PHP's inability
> to load two symbols with the same name, and using module terminology to
> inaccurately describe it. (And thread terminology as well.) That is, it
> seems your intent is that I can import arbitrary code from an arbitrary
> package and shunt it off to a separate symbol table. But it's not clear if
> you intend for the package author to have to do anything to enable that.
> Your answers seem contradictory.
>
> For a concrete example, I'll offer my AttributeUtils library:
> https://github.com/Crell/AttributeUtils/tree/master/src
>
> It has a whole bunch of interfaces, plus a few classes. We'll focus on a
> subset of them for the moment.
>
> Analyzer.php (this is the main class someone uses)
> AttributeParser.php (this is an internal class used by Analyzer, you
> should never use it directly)
> FromReflectionClass.php (an interface that other libraries implement to
> trigger certain functionality in Analyzer)
>
>
In answer to your question - assuming the module file is at the root of
your src directory.
<?php
module \Crell\AnalyzerModule;
export [
\Crell\Analyzer,
\Crell\FromReflectionClass
];
?>
> Say I want to modularize this library, under your proposal. What would I,
> as the library author, do exactly? Anything? How can I mark
> AttributeParser as internal-only and thou-shalt-not-use-if-you're-not-me?
> (That's the most common value of module systems, and the one most people in
> PHP seem to think of, from what I've seen.)
>
> That library is used extensively by Serde (another of my libraries). If I
> modularize AttributeUtils, then what changes does Serde need to make?
On that end
<?php
require_module <path_to_Crell\AnalyzerModule>;
$analyzer = new \Crell\AnalyzerModule::Analyzer();
?>
If the autoloader gets updated to identify and properly load modules
(outside the scope of this RFC) the require_module statement can be
dropped. If a use statement is desired it looks like this
<?php
use \Crell\AnalyzerModule::Analyzer; // This is legal for modules, not for
static classes.
$analyzer = new Analyzer();
?>
> What would it get out of doing so?
>
Nothing much - it just wouldn't be able to see as deeply into the
AttributeUtils code.
