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Date: Fri, 25 Nov 2005 14:14:10 +0100
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To: Ilia Alshanetsky <ilia@prohost.org>
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Subject: Re: [PHP-DEV] Re: PHP 5.1 (Or How to break tousands of apps out there)
From: cschneid@cschneid.com (Christian Schneider)

Ilia Alshanetsky wrote:
> Defining classes/function with generic names will always be a problem as
> they may end up conflicting with same constructs from other libraries or
> PHP itself.

Sure. But that doesn't change the fact that a class named date is 
*known* to cause conflicts. And that the core has a higher 
responsibility than any extension/library/package IMHO.

> To design future proof code projects for the most part prefix all their
> functions/classes to prevent naming conflicts.

Had a quick glance at Gallery2 because it was lying around and they 
don't consistently prefix things. Most classes are prefixed but not all 
of them. I'm inclined to believe that's the case for most popular 
packages, let alone everything else.

> It makes little sense to have a class called curl_curl, when it comes to
> functions the coding standard applied and all functions have a prefix.

That's why I wrote "... (at least when a common name like date is 
used)". While Curl is unique enough (although I'd rather have a longer 
name for the sake of a uniform naming scheme) the name date will 
*definitely* be causing problems. We all agree on that I think.

The question is only if you shift the responsibility to PHP developers 
(a mere dozen people could decide to change it) or to PHP users 
(thousands, not even aware of the issue).

Signing out of this thread with a plea for pragmatism,
- Chris