>>> How does one get a reference to a property, if a property is just a
>> collection
>>> of methods with fancy behavior? That makes properties a first class
>> entity,
>>> which is an entirely different bit of brain bending.
>>
>> Its the same concept as having a reference to a function, where you can
>> invoke the reference and it invokes the function. I say that as a
>> programming concept, not a PHP concept, because I am a bit fuzzy in the
>> "function reference" department of PHP.
>
> I don't believe PHP has function references per se. It has the ability
> to call functions dynamically by either:
>
> $function = 'foo';
> $function();
> // or
> call_user_func[_array]('foo');
>
> (The former is faster so preferred if you have a fixed number of
> variables.)
Right, that is what I thought.
> Functions are not first-class entities in PHP the way they are in, say,
> Javascript so you can't pass them around, nor do you have "function
> pointers" as you do in C. (My god those are a nightmare to code...)
>
> PHP 5.3 introduced anonymous functions/closures, which seem at first
> blush to be sort of like that. However, I believe the internal
> implementation is done using objects and you can mimic that behavior on
> an object using an interface, so really functions still don't have a
> first-class status but are emulated using objects. (I'm sure one of the
> compiler people can correct me if that's not entirely accurate.)
Ah that is interesting then.
>> So is the solution then to make the set method return by reference? Or
>> does that just create more problems?
>
> I'm not sure. I'm just pointing out that "behaves like class members"
> is a substantially more complex scenario than it seems at first blush,
> and we need to think through the implications of that and just how
> closely we can emulate properties.
I completely agree.
> > The basic Idea of a property, is making a getFoo() / setFoo($value)
> pair
> > of methods look and act like a variable from the outside, and have an
> > easily identifiable and simple to use syntax on the inside. The reason
> I
> > originally focused so much around methods, is because properties
> literally
> > are a pair of methods in C# (thats what they are compiled into). But
> PHP
> > is another beast, and the challenges are different. As long as the
> > original purpose of properties is not loss, whatever way we figure out
> is
> > best to implement them is fine with me.
>
> The "original purpose" being, specifically, "smarter class members",
> correct? (The internal syntax to define them we can bikeshed later;
> determining the external syntax and semantics has to come first.)
Well when saying "original purpose" I was referring to exactly this:
"The basic Idea of a property, is making a getFoo() / setFoo($value) pair
of methods look and act like a variable from the outside, and have an
easily identifiable and simple to use syntax on the inside."
But I suppose you could just boil that down to "smarter class members" ;)
- Dennis
--
PHP Internals - PHP Runtime Development Mailing List
To unsubscribe, visit: http://www.php.net/unsub.php
