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Date: Wed, 18 Nov 2009 16:23:40 +0800
Message-ID: <b9339a730911180023h32eec476y940abc907012b5b6@mail.gmail.com>
To: internals@lists.php.net
Content-Type: multipart/alternative; boundary=001636e1fb61cd79050478a0f589
Subject: The inconsistencies/flaws of PHP5's object model
From: diogin@gmail.com (Jingcheng Zhang)

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Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1

Hello internals,

I've just occured a syntax problem in the following script:

<?php
class C {
    public $n = 1;
}
$o = new C();
$o->f = function () use ($o) {
    echo $o->n;
};
$o->f();
?>

The result of this script is "Fatal Error: Call to undefined method C::f()".
I don't know this is the expected result. After trying more tests of
adding/removing properties on the fly, I concluded these
inconsistencies/flaws:

1. There is no way to add/remove instance-level members (both properties and
methods) to class dynamically, but a way to add them to instance itself,
which is a little buggy as above codes turns out;
2. There is no way to add/remove static members dynamically either;
3. There are __get(), __set(), __call() for instance-level members, and
__callStatic() for static methods, but lacks __getStatic() and __setStatic()
for static properties;
4. While using static class as object (general concept of "object", not
"instance" here), it's extremly complex to simulate "prototype object", as
static members simply do'not duplicate themselves at all while inheriting,
therefore all of the child classes share a single static member of the
parent class;
5. The inheritance rule of static member is not well documented, developers
has to try it out themselves;
6. Static methods are allowed in interfaces, but not allowed in abstract
class, which breaks the rule of abstraction;
7. An interface which has only static methods cannot ensure static methods
in a class which implements it.

Sorry to raise so many complaint, but these inconsistencies bring me a big
headache when developing. I would like to hear the design rules of PHP5's
object model, at least, the explanations of the above inconsistencies.
Thanks very much!

-- 
Best regards,
Jingcheng Zhang
P.R.China

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