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To: Nathan Nobbe <quickshiftin@gmail.com>
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Date: Wed, 30 Apr 2008 14:29:13 -0400
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Subject: Re: [PHP-DEV] why interfaces ?
From: robert@interjinn.com (Robert Cummings)


On Wed, 2008-04-30 at 10:21 -0600, Nathan Nobbe wrote:
> all,
> 
> in recent weeks there has been a lot of arguing about what interfaces are,
> arent (on php-general and now on the internals list as well) etc. etc.
> 
> i am quite curious, why interfaces were added to the language in the first
> place.  note, i am not criticizing them, i am overjoyed that the language
> has them, however i am curious about the history.  is this something php
> borrowed from java?  does it have anything to do with 'entirely virtual
> classes' in c++ ?  i think that the history behind the addition of
> interfaces to php, would shed a lot of light on their intended purpose for
> use by php developers.

The answer is in the archives. I haven't gone back to review them, but I
remember vaguely they were originally going with multiple inheritance
before they switched directions after much discussion and took the
interface route instead.

Cheers,
Rob.
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http://www.interjinn.com
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