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Date: Mon, 26 Feb 2024 20:24:24 +0000
To: "php internals" <internals@lists.php.net>
Subject: Re: [PHP-DEV] [RFC[ Property accessor hooks, take 2
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From: larry@garfieldtech.com ("Larry Garfield")

On Mon, Feb 26, 2024, at 7:39 PM, Rowan Tommins [IMSoP] wrote:
> On 26/02/2024 19:02, Frederik Bosch wrote:
>>
>> That's how it always has been, no? So in your example, short code 
>> abbreviated form would not work. One has to write a block.
>>
>>      public  string$fullName  {  
>>          set=>  [$this->first,  $this->last]  =  explode  <http://www.php.net/explode>(' ',  \ucfirst  <http://www.php.net/ucfirst>($value));  // error, $fullName is a string, returning array
>>      }
>>   
>>      public  string$fullName  {  
>>          set{
>>              [$this->first,  $this->last]  =  explode  <http://www.php.net/explode>(' ',  \ucfirst  <http://www.php.net/ucfirst>($value));  // no error, not returning
>>          }
>>      }
>
>
> I think the intention is that both the block and the arrow syntax would 
> have any return value ignored, as happens with constructors, for 
> example. Note that in PHP, there is actually no such thing as "a 
> function not returning a value", even a "void" function actually returns 
> null; so if the return value was treated as meaningful, your second 
> example would give an error "cannot assign null to property of type string".

This correct.  Given a function test():

$ret = test('Larry Garfield');

There's no way to tell if $ret is a possibly-null value we should do something with, or null by side-effect.  The RFC right now takes the stance of "it's null by side effect, always, so we never do anything with the return so it's consistent."

> However, as noted in a previous message, I agree that the short form 
> meaning "the value returned is saved to the backing field" is both more 
> expected and more useful.

You're the first person to comment on it, but I'm glad you agree. :-)  I like it, but Ilija is still unsure about it.

> The "yield" idea is ... interesting. I think personally I find it a bit 
> too magic, and too cryptic to be more readable than an explicit 
> assignment. Opinions may vary, though.
>
> Regards,

Mixing in syntax only used for generators here seems like it's asking for trouble.  It wouldn't actually be a coroutine, so using coroutine like syntax would just be confusing.  It's confusing to me whether this implies the hook becomes a generator or not, which means it's likely to confuse a lot of other people.

--Larry Garfield