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Date: Sun, 1 Aug 2021 18:59:39 +0300
In-Reply-To: <6e668a49-d69c-7b6d-f9c4-1d3fe2058d27@gmail.com>
Cc: internals@lists.php.net
To: Rowan Tommins <rowan.collins@gmail.com>
References: <22EF92EC-C5A3-498E-9EFD-DE2B5B204BB7@gmail.com>
 <6e668a49-d69c-7b6d-f9c4-1d3fe2058d27@gmail.com>
Subject: Re: [PHP-DEV] RFC: autoconst
From: free.smilesrg@gmail.com (Serhii Smirnov)

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> 1 =D0=B0=D0=B2=D0=B3. 2021 =D0=B3., =D0=B2 17:08, Rowan Tommins =
<rowan.collins@gmail.com> =D0=BD=D0=B0=D0=BF=D0=B8=D1=81=D0=B0=D0=BB(=D0=B0=
):
>=20
> On 01/08/2021 12:21, Serhii Smirnov wrote:
>> instead of defining constants like:
>> const FOO =3D 'FOO';
>>=20
>> they could be defined like:
>> autoconst FOO; // defines a constant FOO with the value 'FOO'
>=20
>=20
> While I've certainly seen constants like this in the past, I think =
they mostly fall into two categories:
>=20
> A) Constants where the value doesn't actually matter, and you just =
need something to compare input against. As of PHP 8.1, we will have =
enums, where you can just write "case FOO;" and not assign any value at =
all, which can probably be used in most of these situations.
>=20
> B) Constants where the value matters, but the constant name isn't =
actually conveying anything. Given your suggestion of built-in =
transforms for lower-case etc, these seem like what you're interested =
in.
>=20
> These often arise from a misunderstanding of the dogma to "avoid magic =
numbers and hard-coded values", and result in code that looks like it's =
SHOUTING without conveying any extra information. For instance, people =
start with this:


I was more interested in autoconst keyword that reduces copy/pasting =
constant name as it's value. camelcase and snakecase is an addition. A =
real example why I wanted to use autoconst: on the past project, we had =
class that holds constants with the feature flag names. Something like:

class Features
{
    const FEATURE_FLAG_WITH_SOME_LONG_NAME =3D =
'feature_flag_with_some_long_name';
    const FEATURE_SOME_ANOTHER_COOL_FEATURE =3D =
'feature_some_another_cool_feature';
}

later, in the code we had to check if certain feature is enabled in the =
system:

if =
($featureManager->isEnabled(Features::FEATURE_FLAG_WITH_SOME_LONG_NAME)) =
{
   // some feature related code goes here
}

The class Features could be written as:

class Features
{
    autoconst lower FEATURE_FLAG_WITH_SOME_LONG_NAME, =
FEATURE_SOME_ANOTHER_COOL_FEATURE;
}


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