Newsgroups: php.internals
Path: news.php.net
Xref: news.php.net php.internals:26789
Mailing-List: contact internals-help@lists.php.net; run by ezmlm
Received-SPF: pass (pb1.pair.com: domain gmail.com designates 64.233.182.187 as permitted sender)
DomainKey-Status: good
DomainKey-Signature: a=rsa-sha1; q=dns; c=nofws;
        s=beta; d=gmail.com;
        h=received:mime-version:content-transfer-encoding:message-id:content-type:to:from:subject:date:x-mailer;
        b=kp46lfcL3OjIee/Y15TaINVctOys9ficGdE1XaaU+4O8wk/kvwCJ645oc6Mq3oOnZVn7Gf3310ewThI7yYWP6mOfiIEy/WhCA+nqtfYNjhH4P4WLdUEZ4yoFLGr1XTEBnv2I4mM3DChxlMRrMFg6CGqNKLcs3FVGryVifGxtXko=
Mime-Version: 1.0 (Apple Message framework v752.3)
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
Message-ID: <F11DCE7C-CC32-408B-8CF1-4D95CF3FE900@gmail.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII; delsp=yes; format=flowed
To: internals@lists.php.net
Date: Mon, 4 Dec 2006 15:22:15 +0100
Subject: Making a method called "list" or other "language constructs" names.
From: urbanose@gmail.com (Urbanose)

Hello there :]

I wanted to build a method called "list". The problem is that once I  
do that, I get a
"PHP Parse error:  syntax error, unexpected T_LIST, expecting T_STRING"
error, because it's a "language construct".

Here's the code that leads me to this error :

<?php
class Foo {
	function __construct () {
		
	}
	function list () {
		echo "Hello";
	}
}
$bar = new Foo ();
$bar->list();
?>

So I made it working with a "__call" magic method, like this :

<?php
class Foo {
	function __construct () {
		
	}
	function __call ($name, $arguments) {
		echo "Hello";
	}
}
$bar = new Foo ();
$bar->list();
?>

And it works. So there's my question : why can't we make methods with  
the same name as those used by "language constructs" ? I don't see  
the point. Even less if you can make it work with the __call magic  
method.

Does someone have an explanation ? Is there a way to make this  
possible for future versions of PHP, so that the classes namespace is  
really independent ?

Don't tell me to use another name. Writting code like :
$books->list('all');
or :
class Books extends Controller {
	function list () {
		# Instructions to list all books
	}
}
makes things so much easier to read and self explanatory than  
putting, for example, a "_" in front of it (_list).

Thanks :]

         Urbanose