Hi,
Am 04.08.25 um 17:23 schrieb Larry Garfield:
Hi folks. I recently wrote a blog post on behalf of the PHP Foundation about
some work Gina has been doing regarding generics. It's a follow-up to last
year's post on a similar topic. We are especially looking for feedback from
the Internals crew, and voters in particular, on whether or not to proceed.
https://thephp.foundation/blog/2025/08/05/compile-generics/
Wearing my Internals/voter hat, my stance is a very strong "yes please!"
Thanks for that nice write-up and potentially great improvement.
Can you please elaborate why it wouldn't be possible to create "empty
extending classes" during compile-time of a file when there is a "`new`
generic" found?
Some example to make it clearer:
Given a generic class
```
namespace SomeNamespace;
use Some\Entity;
abstract class MyGenericClass<T: Entity>
{
// ...
}
```
and given an entity
```
namespace MyEntities;
use Some\Entity;
class UserEntity extends Entity
{
// ...
}
```
when using a "`new` generic" in some file
```
namespace OtherNamespace;
use SomeNamespace\MyGenericClass;
use MyEntities\UserEntity;
$myGenericObject = new MyGenericClass<UserEntity>;
```
and when compiling that file
then the compiler creates an "empty extending class" on the fly if there
is none available in the OpCache (from compiling some other file with
the same "`new` generic") that has code equivalent to
```
namespace SomeNamespace;
use MyEntities\UserEntity;
class MyGenericClass<UserEntity> extends MyGenericClass<Entity>
{}
```
That simply(TM) means, to allow `<` and `>` in class names but only
internally to the engine and if generated by the compiler itself.
Further question: Would it be possible to automatically mark a class as
abstract if it is a generic class?
Probably you have thought about this option and I just don't understand
anything about internals of PHP. So don't hesitate to just answer very
shortly. ;-)
Best regards
Thomas
