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 <CA71F0D2-7620-46E6-A764-4CFBD7CDD349@koalephant.com>
In-Reply-To: <CA71F0D2-7620-46E6-A764-4CFBD7CDD349@koalephant.com>
Date: Mon, 15 Feb 2021 09:52:49 -0500
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To: Stephen Reay <php-lists@koalephant.com>
Cc: Internals <internals@lists.php.net>
Content-Type: multipart/alternative; boundary="000000000000641ab705bb612498"
Subject: Re: [PHP-DEV] Whitespace around Paamayim Nekudotayim (double colon)
From: matthewmatthew@gmail.com (Matthew Brown)

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There are plenty of places where PHP doesn't allow whitespace currently.

The most comparable example is between namespace separators:

Ns \ bar();
Ns \ SOME_CONST;

are both syntax errors.

`MyClass::bar()` and `MyClass::SOME_CONST` are often used in place of
`Ns\bar()` and `Ns\SOME_CONST` because the former invokes the autoloader in
a way the latter does not. My gut tells me they should behave the same way
with respect to whitespace, too.

In some situations PHP _does_ treat the identifier "Foo::bar" differently
to "Foo :: bar":

class A {
    public static function b() {
        return 5;
    }
}

echo "A::b"(); // works
echo "A :: b"(); // fatal error

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