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Subject: Re: [PHP-DEV] PHP True Async RFC - Stage 2
Date: Fri, 21 Mar 2025 11:17:08 +0100
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From: daniil.gentili@gmail.com (Daniil Gentili)

>=20
> As I write more code examples, I'm starting to get annoyed by the =
verbosity of the `spawn in $scope` construct=E2=80=94especially in =
situations where all spawns need to happen within the same context.
>=20
> At the same time, in 80% of cases, it turns out that explicitly =
defining `$scope` is the only correct approach to avoid shooting =
yourself in the foot. =20
> So, it turns out that the `spawn in $scope` construct is used far more =
frequently than a plain `spawn`.
>=20
> with async
>=20
> ```php
> function generateReport(): void
> {
>     try {
>    =20
>         $scope =3D Scope::inherit();
>        =20
>         async $scope {
>             [$employees, $salaries, $workHours] =3D await Async\all([
>                 spawn fetchEmployees(),
>                 spawn fetchSalaries(),
>                 spawn fetchWorkHours()
>             ]);
>    =20
>             foreach ($employees as $id =3D> $employee) {
>                 $salary =3D $salaries[$id] ?? 'N/A';
>                 $hours =3D $workHours[$id] ?? 'N/A';
>                 echo "{$employee['name']}: salary =3D $salary, hours =3D=
 $hours\n";
>             }       =20
>         }
>        =20
>     } catch (Exception $e) {
>         echo "Failed to generate report: ", $e->getMessage(), "\n";
>     }
> }
>=20
> ```
>=20
> #### async syntax
>=20
> ```php
> async <scope> {
>     <codeBlock>
> }
> ```
>=20

I can see how you think that syntactic sugar is understandably needed =
for spawn in scope, but again, you=E2=80=99re still writing code that =
makes no sense: why do you care about fetchEmployees (a possible library =
function) not spawning any fiber?

You already explicitly await all fibers spawned in the generateReport =
function, you get all the data you need, any extra spawned fibers should =
not interest you for the purpose of the logic of generateReport.

This is because again, the main use case listed of making sure all =
fibers are done after a request is a footgun is a non-business-logic =
requirement, an exercise in functional purity that also reduces caching =
and concurrency opportunities, as mentioned before.

A (somewhat bikesheeding, but this has been the vast majority of the =
posts on this thread anyway) note is that await could also be made to =
accept an iterable of futures, avoiding the use of Async\all =
combinators.

Regards,
Daniil Gentili.=