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Date: Fri, 21 Nov 2025 03:47:00 +0000
To: Arnaud Le Blanc <arnaud.lb@gmail.com>
Cc: Valentin Udaltsov <udaltsov.valentin@gmail.com>, php internals <internals@lists.php.net>
Subject: Re: [PHP-DEV] First-class constructor callables
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From: internals@gpb.moe ("Gina P. Banyard")

On Thursday, 20 November 2025 at 16:40, Arnaud Le Blanc <arnaud.lb@gmail.co=
m> wrote:

> On Thu, Nov 20, 2025 at 3:21=E2=80=AFPM Arnaud Le Blanc arnaud.lb@gmail.c=
om wrote:
>=20
> > Hi Valentin,
> >=20
> > On Thu, Nov 20, 2025 at 2:20=E2=80=AFPM Valentin Udaltsov
> > udaltsov.valentin@gmail.com wrote:
> >=20
> > > Question for Larry and Arnaud:
> > >=20
> > > In PFA v2, you note that constructor references pose significant tech=
nical challenges.
> > > Could you elaborate on what those challenges are and whether they are=
 fundamental, or potentially addressable with a more limited or explicit sy=
ntax such as `new Foo(...)`?
> >=20
> > One issue is that partial application needs to resolve the function
> > being applied, but constructors can not be resolved without
> > instantiating the class first (at least, not on all classes).
>=20
>=20
> To clarify, constructors are normally resolved after creating an
> object, by calling the get_constructor() handler on the object. The
> handler isn't known before creating the object, at least for internal
> classes, so we can't resolve a constructor without creating an object
> first. This would have to be addressed in order to support partial
> application of classes.

Oh so one more reason to get rid of the get_constructor() handler then.
Would the approach that I started prototyping in
https://github.com/php/php-src/pull/19797 help as we would know the
zend_function the moment we have the CE?


Best regards,

Gina P. Banyard