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To: Nikita Popov <nikita.ppv@gmail.com>
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Date: Fri, 8 Dec 2017 01:38:16 +0100
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Subject: Re: [PHP-DEV] [RFC] Explicit call-site send-by-ref syntax
From: bjorn.x.larsson@telia.com (=?UTF-8?Q?Bj=c3=b6rn_Larsson?=)

Den 2017-12-06 kl. 20:49, skrev Nikita Popov:

> Hi internals,
>
> I'd like propose optional support for explicitly marking by-reference
> argument passing at the call-site, in addition to the declaration-site:
>
>      https://wiki.php.net/rfc/explicit_send_by_ref
>
> In short, while currently we have
>
>      function byRef(&$ref) {...}
>      byRef($var);
>
> this proposal would also allow
>
>      function byRef(&$ref) {...}
>      byRef(&$var);
>
> so that the use of by-reference passing is obvious without having to
> consult the function declaration.
>
> Regards,
> Nikita
>
I think this proposal has a good point about static analysers,
not just about human readability.

A good static analyser is very helpful for eg migration projects
and if this proposal benefits that, it's a plus. Also using same
syntax for references like in other parts of the language has a
value.

Now expressing the same thing in two different ways, with or
without & is confusing, so I think one needs to think about if
old syntax should be deprecated in 8.0.

Has never used PHP 4, so not confused by old PHP 4 syntax
but I guess for people on this list the percentage is higher...

r//Björn