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To: Chris Riley <t.carnage@gmail.com>, Derick Rethans <derick@php.net>
CC: PHP Developers Mailing List <internals@lists.php.net>
Thread-Topic: [PHP-DEV] [VOTE] Shorter Attribute Syntax Change
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Date: Tue, 11 Aug 2020 13:02:59 +0000
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Subject: Re: [PHP-DEV] [VOTE] Shorter Attribute Syntax Change
From: theodorejb@outlook.com (Theodore Brown)

On Tue, Aug 11, 2020 at 7:26 AM Chris Riley <t.carnage@gmail.com> wrote:=0A=
=0A=
> On Tue, 11 Aug 2020 at 13:21, Derick Rethans <derick@php.net> wrote:=0A=
> =0A=
> > On Tue, 11 Aug 2020, Chris Riley wrote:=0A=
> >=0A=
> > > Quick question.=0A=
> > >=0A=
> > > What is the expected behaviour of:=0A=
> > >=0A=
> > > @[Bar()];=0A=
> > > class Foo {}=0A=
> >=0A=
> > That will error out in PHP 8, with:=0A=
> >=0A=
> > Parse error: syntax error, unexpected token ";" in Standard input code =
on=0A=
> > line 2=0A=
> =0A=
> Is=0A=
> =0A=
> <?php @[Bar()]; ?>=0A=
> =0A=
> on it's own an error?=0A=
=0A=
Yes. Basically this is an example of valid code in PHP 7 that will=0A=
break if @[] is adopted. However, it will remain valid to write the=0A=
following:=0A=
=0A=
    @ [Bar()]; // suppressed function call=0A=
    @[ Bar() ] // attribute=0A=
    class Foo {}=0A=
=0A=
Is this still confusing? I think so. People could easily expect=0A=
that the first line is an attribute, or that attributes *should*=0A=
be followed by a semicolon since they have an ending bracket.=0A=
=0A=
**This could even make it easier to sneak vulnerabilities into PHP=0A=
projects.** :\=0A=
=0A=
A second downside of @[] that doesn't appear to have been discussed=0A=
yet is typability. On my keyboard, it requires four different keys=0A=
on different sides of the keyboard, whereas @@ just requires two keys.=0A=
=0A=
Thirdly, the @[] syntax with grouping removes the ability to easily=0A=
grep for attributes, which was one of the benefits of @@ mentioned in=0A=
the Shorter Attribute Syntax RFC.=0A=
=0A=
Unfortunately, this new RFC fails to mention any of these issues,=0A=
thus presenting an incomplete picture of the pros and cons which=0A=
appears to be influencing the vote results against @@.=0A=
=0A=
@[] has had relatively little discussion compared to the other syntax=0A=
options so far, and not all of its issues may even be known yet.=0A=
=0A=
Best regards,  =0A=
Theodore=