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Date: Sat, 29 Jun 2024 11:00:57 +0100
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From: imsop.php@rwec.co.uk ("Rowan Tommins [IMSoP]")



On 29 June 2024 08:06:57 BST, Mike Schinkel <mike@newclarity=2Enet> wrote:
>The takeaways that I think would be useful are PHP modules are:
>
>1=2E Imports
>2=2E Import aliases=20
>3=2E Module-level consts
>4=2E Module-level init() functions
>5=2E Module-level vars with initialization
>6=2E Module-level functions
>7=2E One directory =3D=3D one module
>8=2E No hierarchy for modules
>9=2E Single word module names in lowercase=2E
>10=2E Module sytax being <module><operator><symbol>, e=2Eg=2E mymodule->M=
ySymbol

This all sounds like an interesting set of ideas for building a new langua=
ge=2E Most of it sounds completely impractical to apply in retrospect to an=
 existing one with millions of users - apart from the bits we actually alre=
ady have, like points 3 and 6=2E

Rather than looking at languages which have done things completely differe=
ntly, I think it would be more useful to look for inspiration for ones whic=
h are *similar* to PHP's approach, but have extra features=2E=20

For instance, =2Enet has both "assemblies" (multiple files compiled as one=
 redistributable unit) and namespaces (which are hierarchical, like PHP's)=
=2E "Package private" modifiers work at the assembly level, not the namespa=
ce one=2E

=2ENet assemblies don't have to be limited to one namespace root, but in p=
ractice generally are=2E For PHP, I think there would be some benefits to m=
aking that a fixed rule, with some tricks to "re-open" a namespace, or expl=
icitly add "friends" to it=2E

I don't know much about modern Java, but it too has hierarchical namespace=
s, so there might be good and bad experiences we can learn from there, as w=
ell=2E And I'm sure there are others that are much less alien than JS or Go=
=2E

Rowan Tommins
[IMSoP]