Question. Given this code:
function foo()
{
$bar = 1;
}
$bar = 5;
foo();
echo $bar;
What should happen?
You seem to be saying that "1" should be output. Clearly this would not
be backwards compatible, and would most likely break code.
-[Unknown]
-------- Original Message --------
Hello PHP maintainers,During this week, I spoke with Sara Golemon about the possibility
to change one current behavior of PHP.My first suggestion, as you can see in my blog
post: http://blog.bisna.com/archives/32#comments was a new function called
register_superglobal.While talking with her, I found that it'll be easier to be
implemented another thing.Currently, when we deal with objects and functions in a PHP
application, to access most common variables, we have to do one of these things:function
m() { global $DB; // ...}Another one:function m() { $DB = Database::getInstance();
// ...}Or:function m() { $DB = Registry::get("DB"); // ...}And finally...
via Factory:function m() { $DB = Env::getDatabaseConnection(); // ...}We can also
specify via runkit a superglobal variable (DB), and use it.While all those solutions have
some costs, maybe there is a possibility to change the structure and simplify all those
lines of code.As I already said, my first idea was a
function, register_superglobal, which you register it and access it in a local scope
without using none of the examples I listed.Sara told me about superglobals and etc,
but I suggested her about the possibility to change the idea a little. Here is the
comment I describe 2 possible ideas:"The perfect behavior should be (inside a
function), if a variable
does not exist, try to access a global (without doing via $GLOBALS or
global). If it doesn’t exist in the second try, then throw a fatal
error. With this, you do not need to think in superglobal variable or
anything else. Maybe this suggestion is currently too much difficult to achieve.
The workaround can be done using normal variables. But, as I
mentioned before, when the statement uses a variable, it checks for the
local variables declarations hash table; the idea is different here… if
the variable does not exist in local, look in the hash table I
mentioned (which stores the subscribed variables to behavior like
superglobal) and, if found, grab the variable from the global variable
declarations hash table.
As you can see, there will be only one performance impact (in normal
variable), doing a hash table checking. You do not need to change
autoglobal or static variables. In an average system, the needed time
to do this checking will be an advantage than the currently best
approach (Registry). You lose in one side, but receive more in the
other."She agreed with my idea ("That’s all doable, and with autoglobals being
CVs now, it’s even doable
without too much performance impact on the global fetches themselves…"), BUT
she said I will have to convince engine team to accept this idea too. Also, she said
that will be a too much added complexity for too little. I disagree with her, since
currently there are much more processment retrieving one object from a Registry or
using a global accessor than another compiler hash checking. The performance impact
is almost irrelevant (cannot be measured) and the final solution is cleaner than all
the others. If you look at real world large applications, you can experience these
workarounds. And, as I checked with my contact list (around 600), it'll be a great
improvement of PHP.Now I am leaving this suggestion to internals list, and I hope
you look affectionately at it.Best regards,Guilherme Blanco - Web Developer
CBC - Certified Bindows Consultant
Cell Phone: +55 (16) 9166-6902
URL: http://blog.bisna.com
MSN: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
São Carlos - SP/Brazil
_________________________________________________________________
O Windows Live Spaces está aqui! Descubra como é fácil criar seu espaço na Web
e sua rede amigos.
http://spaces.live.com/signup.aspx
--
PHP Internals - PHP Runtime Development Mailing List
To unsubscribe, visit: http://www.php.net/unsub.php
