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Date: Thu, 11 Feb 2021 09:39:16 -0700
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Subject: Proposal: namespace the SPL
From: levim@php.net (Levi Morrison)

Hello, everyone,

There has been a lot of disagreement about namespacing, and people
seem to have different viewpoints. I am not sure how to reconcile this
broader discussion.

However, there are certain names in the global namespace which I am
hopeful we can revolve. For instance, `SplObserver`, `SplQueue`,
`SplFixedArray`, etc all follow the `Spl` prefix. There is already an
established "namespace" for these names.

So here is my limited proposal:
 1. We create names in the `Spl` namespace that are aliases to their
equivalent types with the `Spl` prefix:
    `Spl\FixedArray` -> SplFixedArray
    `Spl\Queue` -> SplQueue
     a. The new names are the aliases so any code which uses
`get_class($obj)` will not have the name change on them in a minor
release (8.1).
     b. We may switch the direction of this alias in 9.0.
 2. Any new types going into `ext/spl` use the `Spl` namespace. New
types added to `ext/spl` should be either related to data structures
or iterators, which is the bulk of what the SPL is.
     a. This rule is to help prevent the SPL from becoming the dumping
grounds for new types.
 3. We leave functions alone for now.

Let me know what you think. I am hopeful this approach will work because:
 1. It is focused on a specific area which already has an established
"namespace", but in name-only (not technically).
 2. It does not try to solve the larger problem, which has a lot of
disagreement.
 3. I will be proposing new types for ext/spl soon (`ReverseIterator`
and an array iterator that is more efficient than `\ArrayIterator`),
and Tyson Andre has already proposed `CachedIterable` and company
which is in `ext/spl`, so this space has active development.

Thank you for your time.