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Date: Thu, 08 May 2008 18:37:09 -0400
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To: internals@lists.php.net
Subject: Re: [PHP-DEV] allow_call_time_pass_reference
From: hsantos@isdg.net (Hector Santos)

Steph Fox wrote:
> Hi all,
> 
> Does anyone have a good reason for keeping it switched on by default in 
> PHP 5.3? Like, would switching it off by default break a lot of existing 
> code, given that most users are a bit beyond PHP 3 now?

As a new PHP extension author,  it was one the first things I had to 
make sure was enabled to avoid the warning.   The extension has over 150 
server API functions exposed and a majority have a C/C++ prototype of:

    BOOL func(input, output);

So our C/C++ to converter make them pass back structures as arrays, for 
example:

  boolean wcLookupName(string name, TUserInfo &uinfo);

But because of this issue, we are slowing making functions return 
results as array:

  TUserInfo wcLookupName(string name);

In many cases, it makes sense to have both, but I also think the former 
allows for easier programming:

   if (!wcLookup("hector", &$uinfo)) {
       die("error");
   }

as opposed to:

   if (($uinfo = wcLookup("hector") === null) {
       die("error");
   }

Six in one....

May I suggest to make it [Extension] INI ready?

I explored this and it seem to work, but not sure if its really the 
case.  It appears that adding it in my PHP.INI [extension_name] section 
appears to enabled the option only when the extension is loaded.

--
Hector