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Date: Fri, 21 Nov 2008 17:18:42 +0200
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Subject: Proposal for "nameof" functionality without new keyword...
From: sv_forums@fmethod.com ("Stan Vassilev | FM")

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Hi,

Earlier I proposed this construct which fell on deaf ears, maybe since =
it means a new keyword "nameof":

namespace Foo\Bar;
class Baz {}
$name =3D nameof Baz; // 'Foo\Bar\Baz'

The same expansion to FQN happens for imports/aliases with "use XXX".

I want to suggest an alternative approach which could work just the same =
internally, but without a new keyword:

namespace Foo\Bar;
class Baz {}
$name =3D Baz::__NAME__; // 'Foo\Bar\Baz'

[IMPORTANT] Baz::__NAME__ should be replaced at parse time (like the =
magic constants), so that class Baz is not autoloaded (we don't need it =
autoloaded just for the name).

Why is this good:

1) Would cover our basic needs for this feature when passing class names =
around for factories, callbacks, strategies, handlers and so on.

2) Doesn't introduce a new keyword, and apparently class constant =
__NAME__ is very rarely used by anyone, if at all (Google Code Search =
shows 0 hits on PHP code).

3) It's intuitive as it follows the conventions established by the other =
magic constants, and serves a very similar purpose.

Regards,=20
Stan Vassilev 
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