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Date: Thu, 16 Sep 2010 23:34:40 +0100
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Subject: Re: [PHP-DEV] docBlock Parser RFC
From: glopes@nebm.ist.utl.pt ("Gustavo Lopes")

On Thu, 16 Sep 2010 21:56:04 +0100, Chad Fulton <chadfulton@gmail.com>  
wrote:

> Based on comments from the annotations thread, I have created a
> docBlock parser RFC at http://wiki.php.net/rfc/docblockparser
>
> This RFC does not deal with annotations per se, but only with the idea
> of adding a function to the Reflection extension which would parse
> docBlocks according to a set docBlock syntax into a simple associative
> array containing three elements: short description, long description,
> and an array of tags.
>
> This is only meant to aid meta-data retrieval for classes and does not
> automatically instantiate anything objects.
>

Pointless.

Well, this will maybe speedup and standardize the usage of doc comments,  
but it's very far from what we could do with real annotations.

By real annotations, I mean something the engine would recognize and that  
we could use in the future to implement AOP functionality with annotations  
or to implement other new features in the future, e.g.:

class A {
     @ReadOnly
     public $var;

     @PropertyGetter("virtualPropertyName")
     public function baz() {  }

     @ClassInvariant
     public static function bar() { }

     @InstanceInvariant
     public function foo() { }

     /**
      * A closure that could be called as if it were a non-static method
      * and which would be automatically rebound.
      * @var Closure
      */
     @MethodClosure("staticMethod" => false, "rebind" => true)
     public static $clos;

     @Before("self::whatever", instance=true) /* Or @After, or @Around */
     @Log("entering foobar") /* user-defined specialization of Before */
     @Precondition(...)
     public function foobar() {}
}

The current implementation would not allow any of this, but at least it  
opened way. A doc comment parser...

-- 
Gustavo Lopes