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Date: Sun, 9 Nov 2025 15:27:02 +0100
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Subject: Re: [PHP-DEV] [RFC] isReadable/isWriteable property reflection
To: Larry Garfield <larry@garfieldtech.com>,
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From: tim@bastelstu.be (=?UTF-8?Q?Tim_D=C3=BCsterhus?=)

Hi

On 11/7/25 20:12, Larry Garfield wrote:
> (The counter argument, I suppose, is that this is hardly going to be a super-common routine to call so ergonomics don't matter.)

Yes. I expect this to mostly be useful deep within frameworks or 
specialized libraries. The type of code where these functions are likely 
to be used are very likely to be functions with an above-average 
complexity and having explicit code there will help keep the complexity 
low. Also it's not like `static::class` is particularly complicated to use.

One issue I'm seeing with the “magic context” logic is that the code 
will suddenly break when the call to `->isReadable()` is moved into a 
helper function. Particularly when you consider the __get() use case 
that I mentioned below: Folks that are interested in wanting to learn 
whether there's a property that is actually readable *or* a magic getter 
might want to put this combined logic into a helper - and then the 
implicit scope will no longer work.

> stack-inspection isn't new.  `Closure::getCurrent()` is the most recent example, so we don't think it's especially problematic.

The difference is that `Closure::getCurrent()` is a single-purpose 
function that is explicitly defined to operate on the current scope. It 
specifically throws an Error when misused. `->isReadable()` OTOH will 
silently misbehave.

AFAICT it would also be the first reflection function that has dynamic 
behavior.

> If there's a preference for avoiding magic strings, it would be easy enough to use an enum instead.  Something like:

My issue is not primarily with the “magic string”, but with the quite 
significant behavioral difference depending on the parameter value.

Best regards
Tim Düsterhus