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Date: Wed, 21 Jan 2009 22:05:14 +0100
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Subject: Enhanced __CLASS__ constant
From: david@grudl.com (David Grudl)

Especially in namespaced code it should be very useful  to have 
"something" returning fully qualified name as string. It can be 
operator, but I think introducing new keyword is bad way, or it can be 
realized using well known magic constant in new context:

Example:

function factory($class)
{
    return new $class;
}

$obj = factory('MyClass'); // returns object MyClass
$obj = factory(MyClass::__CLASS__); // returns again object MyClass, 
code is little bit more selfexplaining


But big advantages are in namespaced code (especially when you refactor 
a code):

namespace Foo;
use Other\Bar;

$obj = factory('MyClass'); // ERROR - returns object \MyClass, must be 
refactored to:
$obj = factory(__NAMESPACE__ . '\\MyClass');  // very very ugly! :-(
$obj = factory('Other\Bar');  // use statement must be duplicated here :-(

// with magic contant:
$obj = factory(MyClass::__CLASS__);  // returns object Foo\MyClass, very 
understandable :-)
$obj = factory(Bar::__CLASS__);  // returns object  Other\Bar, as use 
statement declares :-)

David Grudl