Newsgroups: php.internals
Path: news.php.net
Xref: news.php.net php.internals:130153
Precedence: list
MIME-Version: 1.0
Date: Tue, 24 Feb 2026 12:35:58 +0100
To: Ben Ramsey <ramsey@php.net>
Cc: internals@lists.php.net
Subject: Re: [PHP-DEV] [RFC] Readonly Variables
In-Reply-To: <20260224004547.C3CD51A00BD@lists.php.net>
References: <CE12E852-00AA-41E1-8E8A-B82B89F801A4@wcflabs.de>
 <CAGBsUrdczien7yCvQLNMQXOcJnZbmjOgAMQi4rD8uRxzkVsm8Q@mail.gmail.com>
 <20260224004547.C3CD51A00BD@lists.php.net>
Message-ID: <612d36a742485a793878fed237c7b17f@bastelstu.be>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8;
 format=flowed
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit
From: tim@bastelstu.be (=?UTF-8?Q?Tim_D=C3=BCsterhus?=)

Hi

Am 2026-02-24 01:45, schrieb Ben Ramsey:
> Objects are references, whether or not using the `&` operator.

This is false. Quoting from the PHP documentation at 
https://www.php.net/manual/en/language.oop5.references.php:

> One of the key-points of PHP OOP that is often mentioned is that 
> "objects are passed by references by default". This is not completely 
> true. […] In PHP, an object variable […] contains an object identifier 
> which allows object accessors to find the actual object.

-

> Is the idea to allow objects (and arrays) similar to how JavaScript 
> handles these with `const`? That is, the objects and arrays themselves 
> are mutable, but the variable name cannot be reassigned to a new object 
> or array?

The proposed semantics in the RFC are very clearly modeled after the 
existing behavior of `readonly` properties in PHP: Immutability of 
identity, which would be “cannot be reassigned”. I'd like to note here 
that arrays in PHP are values, thus they are immutable when stored in a 
readonly property (see https://3v4l.org/vS0ij). I expect the same from 
this RFC, but having array-semantics spelled out explicitly + an example 
certainly makes sense for clarity.

Best regards
Tim Düsterhus