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Reply-to:marcus.boerger@post.rwth-aachen.de
Message-ID: <5.1.0.14.2.20030502125524.093ec070@pop.t-online.de>
Date: Fri, 02 May 2003 12:56:53 +0200
To: "l0t3k" <cshmoove@bellsouth.net>
Cc: internals@lists.php.net
In-Reply-To: <20030502035725.53049.qmail@pb1.pair.com>
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Subject: Re: [PHP-DEV] Object Design question.
From: marcus.boerger@t-online.de ((Marcus =?iso-8859-1?Q?B=F6rger?=))
References: <20030502035725.53049.qmail@pb1.pair.com>

At 15:02 01.05.2003, l0t3k wrote:
>im writing a UnicodeString class for an extension and wanted to ask a
>question related to the design of the user-space API.
>
>the issue is with operations that perform modifications (insert, remove,
>padding, etc). we have the java/javascript route where strings are
>immutable, meaning that each modification operation creates a new string
>while leaving the original unmodified. this has the virtue of being familar
>to people (less WTF), though its less efficient.  but we may also choose to
>do modifications in-place and return a reference to the string.

Java is the full WTF overkill-megabloat when it comes to think about
memory usage. So please don't do the same mistake!

>   i copped out for now and provided for having modification methods function
>statically as well as non-statically. f. ex.
>
>// modifies  $warAndPeace.  $str and $warAndPeace refer to the same string
>(1)    $str =  I18N::UnicodeString::insert($warAndPeace, $editorsNotes, 0);
>
>//  creates $newString, copies $warAndPeace to it, and does the insert
>(2)    $newString = $warAndPeace->insert($editorsNotes, 0)
>
>the question is should (2) return a reference to the original which is
>modified in place.  i think having static/non-static handling may be the way
>out, but the concern there is perceived bloatage.


static = copy
dynamic = inplace