Hello,
the last time the topic traits has been discussed is already a
while ago.
At this time, there have been two very different opinions out
there, about
how exactly this horizontal reuse should actually look like and no
common
consensus was found. In the following RFC, I describe both
approaches in
more detail.
For neither of them is a work patch available, but this should not
hinder
discussion. In this step, we should find an agreement on the
direction, in
which PHP has to evolve.
The part about Traits in this proposal, is equal to the former RFC.
The
second
Part introduces the new variation and is an alternative approach to
traits.
Looking forward for your opinions,
Kind Regards
Stefan
Request for Comments: Horizontal Reuse for PHP
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
:Version: 2.0alpha
:HTML: http://www.stefan-marr.de/artikel/rfc-horizontal-reuse-for-php.html
:TXT: http://www.stefan-marr.de/rfc-horizontal-reuse-for-php.txt
:Author: Stefan Marr <php.at.stefan-marr.de>
:Previous RFC: http://www.stefan-marr.de/artikel/rfc-traits-for-php.html
:Related RFC: http://wiki.php.net/rfc/nonbreakabletraits
.. contents::
This RFC will discuss two different approaches to reuse behavior
independently
from the class hierarchy i.e. in an horizontal manner. The main
motivation
of both approaches is to provide a broader opportunity to model
classes and
class hierarchies with a clear conceptual background and optimal
code reuse
at
the same time. Furthermore, the main distinction to other
approaches is the
explicit handling of conflicts resulting from overlapping
interfaces in
complex
reuse scenarios. Both approaches would be valuable extensions to
the PHP
language, but both of them have their own benefits and drawbacks.
Thus, this RFC is meant to provide a base for further discussion to
be able
to decide, which variant is the most PHP-like reuse mechanism.
Why Do We Need Horizontal Reuse?
================================
Code reuse is one of the main goals that object-oriented languages
try to
achieve with inheritance. Unfortunately, single inheritance often
forces
the developer to take a decision in favor for either code reuse *or*
conceptual clean class hierarchies. To achieve code reuse, methods
have
either to be duplicated or to be moved near the root of the class
hierarchy,
but this hampers understandability and maintainability of code.
To circumvent this problems multiple inheritance and Mixins have been
invented.
But both of them are complex and hard to understand. PHP5 has been
explicitly
designed with the clean and successful model of Java in mind:
single inheritance, but multiple interfaces. This decision has been
taken
to avoid the known problems of for example C++. The presented
approaches
have
been designed to avoid those problems and to enable designers to
build
conceptually clean class hierarchies without the need to consider
code reuse
or complexity problems, but focusing on the real problem domain and
maintainability instead.
Limitations to Reuse in Single Inheritance Languages
----------------------------------------------------
There are several issues with reuse in PHP. To achieve as much
reuse as
possible you will probably move methods as high as possible in your
inheritance
hierarchy. At this point, there is a trade-off between conceptual
consistency
and reuse, because classes starts to have methods they do not need.
So, when
it
is decided that the conceptual consistency is more valuable because
of
understandability of the class model, code duplication is caused or
needs to
be
worked around by e.g. delegation, which is not always as nice as
method
implemented in the class tree.
Beside conceptual issues, there are problems with third-party code
you can
not
or might not want to modify. The following code illustrates the
current
implementation of an extended version of the PHP reflection API which
provides
detailed access to doc comment blocks. ``ReflectionMethod`` and
``ReflectionFunction`` are classes from the reflection API and have
to be
extended with exactly the same code. In this case it is impossible
to change
the classes itself, because they are not under our control i.e.
they are
implemented in C as part of the language.
::
<?php
class ezcReflectionMethod extends ReflectionMethod {
/* ... */
function getReturnType() { /*1*/ }
function getReturnDescription() { /*2*/ }
/* ... */
}
class ezcReflectionFunction extends ReflectionFunction {
/* ... */
function getReturnType() { /*1*/ }
function getReturnDescription() { /*2*/ }
/* ... */
}
?>
Thus, eventually, we end up with much duplicated code in both classes
extending
the original extension classes.
Which Opportunities Does PHP Has?
---------------------------------
For the sake of distinction and discussion, the two approaches
are named differently. The idea of *Traits* for PHP has been already
proposed
in a former RFC_. This RFC introduces in addition the notion
of *Grafts* (the term is borrowed from `agrarian cultivation`_).
A *Trait* is an unit of behavioral reuse. It is very lightweight,
stateless
and
allows for a very flexible composition of behavior into classes.
A *Graft* is a class composed into another class. It is very much
like
grafting is
done in the agriculture. It allows for a full-fledged reuse of
classes
inside
of other classes independent of the class hierarchy.
The following proposal will introduce both flavors of horizontal
reuse and
compares them in the context of PHP.
Traits - Reuse of Behavior
==========================
*Traits* is a mechanism for code reuse in single inheritance
languages such
as PHP. A Trait is intended to reduce some limitations of single
inheritance
by enabling a developer to reuse sets of methods freely in several
independent
classes living in different class hierarchies.
The semantics of the combination of Traits and classes is defined
in a way,
which reduces complexity and avoids the typical problems associated
with
multiple inheritance and Mixins.
They are recognized for their potential in supporting better
composition
and reuse, hence their integration in languages such as Perl 6,
Squeak,
Scala, Self, Slate and Fortress. Traits have also been ported to
Java and
C#.
In the following, the concepts behind Traits will be adapted for
PHP to
propose
two different approaches which resemble the main ideas.
A Trait is similar to a class, but only intended to group
functionality in a
fine-grained and consistent way. It is not possible to instantiate
a Trait
on
its own. It is an addition to traditional inheritance and enables
horizontal
composition of behavior.
In the introduction an example has been given illustrating reuse
limitations
of single inheritance. With Traits it is possible to remove the
duplicated
code
without compromising conceptual consistency.
::
<?php
trait ezcReflectionReturnInfo {
function getReturnType() { /*1*/ }
function getReturnDescription() { /*2*/ }
}
class ezcReflectionMethod extends ReflectionMethod {
use ezcReflectionReturnInfo;
/* ... */
}
class ezcReflectionFunction extends ReflectionFunction {
use ezcReflectionReturnInfo;
/* ... */
}
?>
This is just a small example of what Traits are useful for.
The next sections will discuss more advanced techniques and
describe how
Traits are used in PHP.
The Flattening Property
-----------------------
As already mentioned, multiple inheritance and Mixins are complex
mechanisms.
Traits are an alternative which have been designed to impose no
additional semantics on classes. Traits are only entities of the
literal
code
written in your source files. There is no notion about Traits at
runtime.
They are used to group methods and reuse code and are totally
flattened
into the classes composed from them. It is almost like a language
supported
and
failsafe copy'n'paste mechanism to build classes.
Even though, there is no runtime notion of Traits, since they are
part of
the
source code and thus, define the structure of the system,
reflection about
Traits still is possible, but they do not influence the runtime
behavior of
the
system.
Precedence Order
""""""""""""""""
Flattening is achieved by applying some simple rules on the
composition
mechanism. Instead of implementing a fancy and awkward algorithm to
solve
problems, the entire control about the composition is left in the
hand of
the
developer and fits nicely into the known inheritance model of PHP.
The following examples illustrate the semantics of Traits and their
relation
to methods defined in classes.
::
<?php
class Base {
public function sayHello() {
echo 'Hello ';
}
}
trait SayWorld {
public function sayHello() {
parent::sayHello();
echo 'World!';
}
}
class MyHelloWorld extends Base {
use SayWorld;
}
$o = new MyHelloWorld();
$o->sayHello(); // echos Hello World!
?>
As shown in the above code, an inherited method from a base class is
overridden
by the method inserted into ``MyHelloWorld`` from the ``SayWorld``
Trait.
The behavior is the same for methods defined in the
``MyHelloWorld`` class.
The precedence order is that methods from the current class
override Trait
methods,
which in return override methods from the base class.
::
<?php
trait HelloWorld {
public function sayHello() {
echo 'Hello World!';
}
}
class TheWorldIsNotEnough {
use HelloWorld;
public function sayHello() {
echo 'Hello Universe!';
}
}
$o = new TheWorldIsNotEnough();
$o->sayHello(); // echos Hello Universe!
?>
Multiple Traits Usage
"""""""""""""""""""""
To keep things simple in the beginning, there has only one Trait
being used
at
a time, but obviously a class could use multiple Traits at the same
time.
::
<?php
trait Hello {
public function sayHello() {
echo 'Hello ';
}
}
trait World {
public function sayWorld() {
echo ' World';
}
}
class MyHelloWorld {
use Hello, World;
public function sayExclamationMark() {
echo '!';
}
}
$o = new MyHelloWorld();
$o->sayHello();
$o->sayWorld();
$o->sayExclamationMark();
// Results eventually in: Hello World!
Conflict Resolution
"""""""""""""""""""
Traits are already used in different programming languages and it
has shown
that conflicts will occur, but they are the exception, not the
rule. In most
systems under investigation, the mechanisms to resolve conflicts
have been
used
very infrequently, but also have proven to be a valuable
mechanisms. Since
it
increases the composition power of the developers.
One example for a typical conflict are different Traits providing
methods
with the
same name.
::
<?php
trait A {
public function smallTalk() {
echo 'a';
}
public function bigTalk() {
echo 'A';
}
}
trait B {
public function smallTalk() {
echo 'b';
}
public function bigTalk() {
echo 'B';
}
}
?>
Both classes have to be used in a class named ``Talker``. Multiple
inheritance
and Mixins define an algorithm to resolve this conflict. Traits
don't.
Conflicts
are not solved implicitly by any kind of precedence. Instead, to
avoid
implicit
complexity, the developer has full control over class composition.
::
<?php
class Talker {
use A, B;
}
?>
In case of the above definition of ``Talker``, PHP will show a
waring that
there
have been conflicts and name the methods ``smallTalk()`` and
``bigTalk()``
as the reason of this conflict. Therefore, neither of the given
implementations
will be available in the class.
Instead, the developer can exactly define which methods are used
and how the
conflict is resolved.
::
<?php
class Talker {
use A, B {
B::smallTalk instead A::smallTalk,
A::bigTalk instead B::bigTalk
}
}
?>
This definition will result in leaving out ``smallTalk()`` from
Trait A
and ``bigTalk()`` from Trait B. Therefore, the resulting class
Talker would
echo ``'b'`` for ``smallTalk()`` and ``'A'`` for ``bigTalk().``
But this simple form of exclusion of methods is not the best choice
for all
situations.
::
<?php
class Talker {
use A, B {
B::smallTalk instead A::smallTalk,
A::bigTalk instead B::bigTalk,
B::bigTalk as talk
}
}
?>
Beside leaving out methods it is possible to introduce a new name
for a
method
from a Trait. This is done like ``originalMethodName as
additionalMethodName``.
In the example above, it has to be read as ``use B::bigTalk as talk
in class
Talker``. This does not imply any renaming, instead ``talk`` is
introduced
as
an additional name for this method. Thus, recursion inside of
``talk`` will
still call a method with the name bigTalk.
The resulting ``Talker`` class will consist of following three
methods:
* ``bigTalk() { echo 'A'; }``
* ``smallTalk() { echo 'b'; }``
* ``talk() { echo 'B'; }``
Since the new name is recognized as an additional method, the
``bigTalk``
method still has to be excluded. Otherwise, PHP would print
a warning that two methods from Traits have a conflict and are
excluded.
The introduction of a new name is not renaming and references in
methods to
a
given method name aren't changed either. On the first look this may
sound
strange, but it provides the opportunity to build Traits and even
hierarchies
of Traits which fit together very well.
Traits Composed from Traits
"""""""""""""""""""""""""""
Not explicitly mentioned jet, but implied by the flattening
property is the
composition of Traits from Traits.
Since Traits are fully flattened away at compile time it is
possible to use
Traits to compose Traits without any additional impact on the
semantics.
The following code illustrates this::
<?php
trait Hello {
public function sayHello() {
echo 'Hello ';
}
}
trait World {
public function sayWorld() {
echo 'World!';
}
}
trait HelloWorld {
use Hello, World;
}
class MyHelloWorld {
use HelloWorld;
}
$o = new MyHelloWorld();
$o->sayHello();
$o->sayWorld();
// Results eventually in: Hello World!
?>
Traits itself can take part in arbitrary compositions, but Traits
are not
part
of the inheritance tree i.e., it is not possible to inherit from a
Trait to
avoid confusion and misuse of Traits.
Express Requirements by Abstract Methods
""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""
Since Traits do not contain any state/properties, there is a need to
describe
the requirements a Trait will rely on. In PHP it would be possible to
utilize
the dynamic language features, but it is a common practice to give
this
requirements explicitly.
This is possible with abstract methods like it is used for abstract
classes.
::
<?php
trait Hello {
public function sayHelloWorld() {
echo 'Hello'.$this->getWorld();
}
abstract public function getWorld();
}
class MyHelloWorld {
private $world;
use Hello;
public function getWorld() {
return $this->world;
}
public function setWorld($val) {
$this->world = $val;
}
}
?>
The usage of abstract methods allows to state not always obvious
relation
ships
and requirements explicitly. It is favored over the implicit usage
of the
dynamic method resolution and property creation in the context of
complex
projects for the sake of readability.
Traits Semantics Summarized
---------------------------
1. Traits do not add runtime semantics, they only take part in the
process
of
building a class.
2. Traits integrate into the precedence order of method overriding.
3. To avoid complexity, conflicts between Trait methods have to be
solved
explicitly. Otherwise a waring is generated and the conflicting
methods
are excluded.
4. In combinations with conflicts, developers have to chose
explicitly which
method has to be used, methods not chosen will be excluded from the
composition.
5. Aliases can be defined for methods to enable reuse of conflicting
methods.
6. Traits can be composed from Traits.
7. Traits can state requirements explicitly by the use of abstract
methods.
As a result of this semantics, at runtime, classes build using
Traits are
not distinguishable
from classes not using Traits but traditional code duplication
instead.
Semantics of ``parent`` and ``$this`` hasn't changed, too. Used in
a Trait
method, they behave exactly the same as if the method has been
defined in
the
class directly.
Visibility
----------
Visibility modifiers have not been discussed so far. Since Traits
are meant
as
units of reuse, modifiers should be changeable easily in the
context of a
composed class. Therefore, the aliasing operation is able to change
the
visibility modifier of a method, too.
::
<?php
trait HelloWorld {
public function sayHello() {
echo 'Hello World!';
}
}
class MyClass1 {
use HelloWorld { sayHello as protected }
}
class MyClass2 {
use HelloWorld { doHelloWorld as private sayHello }
}
?>
The final modifier is supported, too. The static modifier is not
supported,
because it would change the methods semantics and references to ``
$this``
would break.
Grafts - Class Composition
==========================
A *Graft* is a class composed into another class to reuse it avoiding
inheritance and without an explicit need for delegation. The most
important
difference to a Trait is the possibility to define state in
addition to
behavior inside the reused entity. Furthermore, the grafting
approach is not
about reuse methods in a manner focused on flexibility, but instead
it is
about reusing small encapsulated units of behavior and state to build
classes
from them. Thus, it could be viewed as a form of private multiple
inheritance
which avoids conflicts by keeping everything private to the Graft per
default.
Grafts can be used in an similar way as Traits can be used. Thus, the
example
from the introduction can be optimized with Grafts as well.
::
<?php
class ezcReflectionReturnInfo {
function getReturnType() { /*1*/ }
function getReturnDescription() { /*2*/ }
}
class ezcReflectionMethod extends ReflectionMethod {
use ezcReflectionReturnInfo {
public getReturnType();
public getReturnDescription();
}
/* ... */
}
class ezcReflectionFunction extends ReflectionFunction {
use ezcReflectionReturnInfo {
public getReturnType();
public getReturnDescription();
}
/* ... */
}
?>
Since, everything is local to the Graft per default, the methods
need to be
enumerated to be accessible in the class and its interface.
Grafting Classes
----------------
A Graft is a class itself and can be instantiated at will. Compared
to a
normal
class, there are no restrictions, it can use state and it can use
everything else allowed for a class i.e. it is a normal class.
The following class is an example for a simple counter::
<?php
class Counter {
private $cnt = 0;
public function inc() {
$this->cnt++;
}
public function reset() {
$this->cnt = -1;
$this->inc();
}
}
?>
The ``reset()`` is defined a bit strange, because it uses the ``inc
()``
function to set the counter value to zero. This is to illustrate the
semantics
of a Graft inside another class. This counter can be used totally
on its
own.
Thus, ``$c = new Counter(); $c->inc();`` is valid code and will
work as
expected.
Another example class might be a database helper class to
initialize and
reset
a connection::
<?php
class DB {
private $db;
public function connect() {
$this->db = new FooDB('param');
}
public function reset() {
$this->db->flush();
unset($this->db);
}
public function doFoo(){echo 'foo';}
}
Nothing special in this class. The ``connect()`` function uses some
Foo
database abstraction layer to initialize the connection and ``reset
()`` will
issue a flush operation on the database object and unsets it
afterwards.
Compose A Class From Classes
""""""""""""""""""""""""""""
Inheritance is one of the most misunderstood relationships in
object-oriented
programming. It is often abused to achieve code reuse, but
originally it was
meant to describe the relationship between classes from a
conceptual view.
Thus, apples and oranges might be characterized as subclasses of a
class
fruit
and could be subclassed themselves into classes for specific
variants.
In a web application where you for instance would like to build a
page with
a
language allowing multiple inheritance you could start to model a
``MyPage``
class as subclass of ``Counter`` and ``DB``, since you like to
derive the
behavior of both of them. But from the conceptual view it is not
clear why
MyPage is a counter or a database. Both relationships are implied
by the
``instanceof``
operation. Technically, this might have its values, but still it
sounds
strange.
Thus, in single inheritance languages, *delegation* i.e.
*forwarding* is
used
instead. The ``MyPage`` class provides the necessary interfaces for
``Counter``
and ``DB`` but instead of implementing it itself, it forwards the
method
call
to another object::
<?php
class MyPage {
private $cnt;
private $db;
/* ... */
public function inc() { $cnt->inc(); }
public connect() { $db->connect(); }
/* ... */
}
?>
This approach is very common and has its merits. Unfortunately, it
requires
explicit code to implement forwarding and object injection or
creation which
is
tedious. In complex cases this might even cause a broken
encapsulation,
since
it might be necessary to forward data to another object which
should be
private
to the calling object.
Grafts are designed to overcome this situation and provide similar
opportunities for reuse like Traits do. The following code
demonstrates how
Grafts can be used to compose the ``MyPage`` class from the two other
classes::
<?php
class MyPage {
use Counter {
public incCnt() from inc();
public resetCnt() from reset();
}
use DB {
public connect();
public reset();
}
public function inc() {
/* next page */
}
}
?>
The example above shows ``MyPage`` using classes ``Counter`` and
``DB``, to
graft their functionality into it. Since, all methods from a
grafted class
are
hidden from the grafting class by default, the methods to be used
in the
grafting class or from another class need to be named explicitly.
With this approach, conflicts are avoided upfront. In case of
methods with
the
same name in a graft and another graft or the class itself, it is
possible
to
make a method available by another name. In the given example the
method
``reset()`` is made available by the name ``resetCnt()``. This
alias does
not
influence the inner working of the ``Counter`` class in anyway. Thus,
recursion
inside of ``Counter::reset()`` would still work like expected and
the call
to
``incCnt()`` results in an invocation of ``Counter::inc()``. This
would be
not
true for Traits as explained earlier.
With this attributes of Grafts in mind, the following example shows
the
results
of the execution of methods in the context of ``MyPage``::
<?php
$page = new MyPage();
$page->connect();
$page->incCnt(); // Counter::$cnt == 1
$page->resetCnt(); // Counter::$cnt == 0
$page->inc(); // goto next page
$page->doFoo(); // FATAL ERROR
?>
The call to ``connect()`` is forwarded as expected to ``DB::connect
()``,
``incCnt()`` results in a call to ``Counter::inc()`` as already
mentioned,
the
call to ``inc()`` will invoke the ``MyPage::inc()`` method defined
directly
in
the class. The call to ``doFoo()`` results in an error, since the
method
defined in ``DB`` has not been made available in ``MyPage``
explicitly.
Interaction of Grafts with Grafted Classes
""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""
In class-based languages like PHP, the notion of abstract classes was
introduced, to be able to define a unit of reuse in a partial
manner and to
be able to refine it in a more concrete context.
This notion can be used combined with grafting as well. Thus,
abstract
methods
can be fulfilled by a graft or from the grafting class.
The following example shows how a class can be used by grafting to
fulfill a
required abstract method::
<?php
abstract class Base {
abstract public function foo();
}
class MyGraft {
public function foo() { echo 'foo'; }
}
class MyGraftedClass extends Base {
use MyGraft {
public foo();
}
}
$o = new MyGraftedClass();
$o->foo(); // echos 'foo'
?>
In addition, this notion can also be utilized to provide methods to
a graft,
which states a requirement by an abstract class. This case is shown
in the
code below::
<?php
abstract class MyGraft {
abstract public function foo();
public function bar() {
$this->foo();
}
}
class MyGraftedClass {
public function foo() { echo 'foo'; }
use MyGraft {
public bar();
}
}
$o = new MyGraftedClass();
$o->bar(); // echos 'foo'
?>
For properties and methods not explicitly required, it is not
possible to
provide something similar, since this would lead to ambiguity. The
reasons
are described in the discussion section.
Grafting of the Same Class Multiple Times
"""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""
Since, different grafts are separated from each other, it is
possible to
graft
the same class multiple times into one class::
<?php
class MyGraft {
public function foo() { echo 'foo'; }
}
class MyGraftedClass {
use MyGraft {
public foo();
}
use MyGraft {
public bar() from foo();
}
}
$o = new MyGraftedClass();
$o->foo(); // echos 'foo'
$o->bar(); // echos 'foo'
?>
This might not be useful for all classes, but could be used to
graft data
structures like lists or maps into a class which are used for
multiple
purposes.
Restrictions and Initialization of Grafts
"""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""
Actually an instantiated graft is nothing else but an object. Since
grafts
are
full-fledged classes themselves, they could use typical
constructors to
initialize resources or prepare their inner state for further
usage. In the
current form of this proposal, the notion of initializing grafts is
not
supported, thus, only classes with a standard constructor without
arguments
can
be used to be grafted into another class.
Another restriction is that classes can not graft themselves and more
generally, grafting is not allowed to cause recursion in any way.
Since, it
is
not meant to be evaluated lazily, it would case an infinite
recursion which
needs to be prevented.
Implementation Idea
"""""""""""""""""""
Eventually, the implementation seems only to be feasible by
maintaining the
notion of separate objects for classes grafted into another class.
Thus, for
each graft in a class, a normal object is instantiated. This
approach will
ease
the implementation and will reduce modification in method lookup
and the
Zend
Engine in general.
Methods propagated to the grafting class will be generated like usual
methods
implemented by hand. Thus, they will contain the opcodes to forward
the
method
call to the grafted object. In reverse, it would be the same for
methods
introduced by abstract methods satisfied by the grafting class. Those
methods
will call the method provided by the grafting class.
The most visible problem in this approach will be the handling of
object
identity of grafted objects. Imagine the following code::
<?php
class MyGraft {
public function returnThis() {
return $this;
}
}
class MyGraftedClass {
use MyGraft {
public returnThis();
}
}
$o = new MyGraftedClass();
var_dump($o->returnThis());
?>
The result returned should be definitely equal to ``$o`` i.e. ``$o
===
$o->returnThis()``. The reason for this requirement is to preserve
encapsulation and hide implementation details from all clients of
``MyGraftedClass``. To achieve this property some kind of context
dependent
treatment of the ``$this`` lookup has to be implemented or some
kind of data
flow
analysis will have to be done. Neither of them seem to be easy to
achieve
with
respect to the fact, that a grafted class cold hold its own ``
$this`` value
in
some property, for whatever reason.
The other way around would be to open up the notion of grafts and add
mechanisms to inject instances of grafts into a class while object
construction. By the way, this would allow more fancy dependency
injection
and gives a reason to think about grafts not only as implementation
details, but an interface related i.e. *client visible*
characteristic.
But, this notion is currently not part of this proposal.
Grafts Semantics Summarized
---------------------------
1. A Graft is a normal class composed into another class.
2. The encapsulation of grafts is preserved completely.
3. All methods available as part of the grafting class have to be
enumerated
explicitly and can have a different name than the method in the
grafted
class, without breaking inner coherence.
4. Grafts can interact with grafting classes via abstract methods.
5. Methods introduced by a Graft can be used to fulfill abstract
methods.
6. Classes can be grafted into a class multiple times.
7. Classes to be used as Grafts are not allowed to use constructors
with
arguments.
Traits vs. Grafts
=================
This section gives a basic overview about the differences of both
concepts
and
discusses benefits and drawbacks.
*Traits* are entities of behavioral reuse. Thus, they provide a
lightweight
way
to compose methods into classes. They are highly composable
themselves, not
hindered by a strong notion of encapsulation and abandon state for
the sake
of
simplicity.
*Grafts* are classes composed into other classes to achieve reuse of
full-fledged classes. It introduces a stronger notion of
composition of
classes
than typical delegation/forwarding does for OOP languages.
+------------------------+-----------------------------+
| Traits | Grafts |
+========================+=============================+
| - stateless | - complete classes |
| - can "break" | - robust encapsulation |
| - notation is DRY | - some overhead in notation |
| - flexible composition | - convenient composition |
| of behavior | of classes |
| - flattenable, | - language supported |
| no runtime impact | delegation/forwarding |
+------------------------+-----------------------------+
This proposal does only suggest Traits without state to avoid the
introduction
of any notion of Traits at runtime. The key idea of Traits is that
they
provide
method implementations which are flattened into a class. Thus, all
state is
defined in the class and Traits method have to rely on PHPs dynamic
nature
or
have to use abstract method definitions to require getters and
setters.
Since Grafts are full-fledged classes, they have state and handle
it as
expected for distinct objects.
One point of criticism from the community on the notion of Traits
is that
the
methods provided by Traits are not reliable connected. This leads
to missing
features like recursion for methods introduced by aliases. From the
perspective
of composition, this is desired, since it provides additional
opportunities
for
combination of behavior. Traits are not meant to provide
encapsulation on
the
level of classes, but flexibility.
Grafts do avoid this problem by its nature of being classes, but
this comes
for
the cost of flexibility. Grafts can not combined with another. They
are
completely separated entities which only can be combined by abstract
methods.
The notion of Traits avoids any impact on the runtime. For Grafts
this is
not
feasible. They need to maintain strong encapsulation which is
achieved in an
consistent way only by preserving the notion of internal objects.
Thus,
there
is overhead in memory consumption for the objects and runtime cost
for
forwarding method calls compared to Traits.
Another point where Grafts might be improved (see syntax proposals)
is the
syntax for using a class. To avoid conflicts methods are private to
a graft
per
default and thus, need to be enumerated explicitly. Compared to
Traits this
is
not DRY and implies a little overhead in code, but obviously less
overhead
than
typical forwarding cases. With respect to Traits, research has
shown that
conflicts occur only rarely and explicit handling of it is much less
overhead
and brings more power than trying to solve it implicitly.
Discussions
===========
For the original Traits proposal a lot discussion has already taken
place.
The RFC_
summarizes the most important ones. Eventually, it resulted in an
additional
RFC-NBT_ proposing non-breakable Traits, which led finally to this
proposal.
The first thread on was started on the `mailing list`
(http://news.php.net/php.internals/35562) back in February 2008.
Grafts
------
PHP as a dynamic language would give the opportunity to work with
this
grafts functionality more flexible, even without abstract method
definitions,
but this would be very unintuitive since the graft does not know it
is using
methods or properties from the grafted class. On the one hand this
would
even
break the notion of encapsulation and on the other hand, it would
cause
trouble
at least for properties because here it might be that the different
order of
method
execution results in unintended different results. Imagine
something simple
like::
<?php
class MyGraft {
public function get() { return $this->value; }
public function set($value) { $this->value = $value; }
}
?>
Grafted into a class it would depend on the behavior of the grafted
class,
whether there is a property named value and thus the encapsulation is
broken.
Thus, it would be ambiguous to allow a forwarding from within a
grafted
class
to its grafting class for non-defined properties and methods.
Alternative Syntax Proposals
----------------------------
Different keywords and alternative syntaxes for traits have been
already
discussed on the `mailing list` and are documented more detailed in
the
original RFC_.
Some important proposals and new additional proposals are listed
below for
traits as well as grafts.
Traits
""""""
Assignment instead of ``instead``:
Keywords are a rare resource in any language. Thus, new keywords
should be
introduced carefully. To avoid the ``instead`` keyword, a notion of
assignment
was proposed. On the first look, it seems even to avoid an
impression of
renaming::
<?php
class Talker {
use A, B, C, D {
smallTalk = A::smallTalk; // this says that if
// B, C or D implement smallTalk,
// it is ignored
talk = A::bigTalk;
}
}
?>
Grafts
""""""
Grafts use wildcard:
The proposed Grafts syntax is not DRY and all methods names to be
made
available need to be enumerated. To avoid this enumeration, a
syntax with a
wildcard was proposed::
<?php
class MyGraftingClass {
use MyGraftClass *;
}
?>
Links and Literature
====================
.. _RFC: http://www.stefan-marr.de/artikel/rfc-traits-for-php.html
.. _RFC-NBT: http://wiki.php.net/rfc/nonbreakabletraits
.. _agrarian cultivation:
http://www.robinsonlibrary.com/agriculture/plant/propagation/grafting.htm
.. _mailing list: http://marc.info/?l=php-internals&m=120336491008719
As already mentioned, Traits is not a totally new concept, but the
semantics
used in this proposal has been fully defined at first in 2003. For
scientific
information and papers about Traits
http://www.iam.unibe.ch/~scg/Research/Traits/
is a good starting point. Since it isn't a purely academic
concepts, there
are
already languages supporting Traits out there. Squeak, Perl6,
Scala, Slate,
Fortress and even for C#/Rotor implementation are available.
A detailed technical report has been published at
http://www.iam.unibe.ch/~scg/Archive/Papers/Duca06bTOPLASTraits.pdf
It explains Traits and gives some formal proves about the soundness
of
Traits, too.
Last but not least, in this PhD thesis
http://www.iam.unibe.ch/~scg/Archive/PhD/schaerli-phd.pdf
two case studies have been publish illustrating the benefits Traits
are
providing.
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