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Date: Fri, 17 Dec 2010 13:09:18 -0500
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To: PHP Internals List <internals@lists.php.net>
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Subject: Re: [PHP-DEV] RFC: Selecting Namespaces and Tag styles at include
 time. ( was Re: PHP Dev RFC Selecting Namespaces and Tag styles at include time.)
From: dmgx.michael@gmail.com (Michael Morris)

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I've been giving some thought to the implication of my off the cuff addition
of PHP_TAGS_NONE to the modes allowed and what should logically go with
that. If tag style can be declared in a function, it should be possible set
them in the configuration and at other places. Currently tag style is spread
over multiple settings in the configuration - I know of two:

asp_tags
short_open_tag

This is problematic moving forward so I hereby suggest nipping further
proliferation in the bud and go to one configuration setting with this name:

tag_style

It's values, and their corresponding meaning:

Val  Constant           Effect
0    PHP_TAGS_LEGACY    Honor older ini tag settings such as asp_tags
                         or short_open_tag, in all ways behave in a
                         a manner compliant with the expectations of
                         any scripts that are upgrading.
1    PHP_TAGS_NONE      No tags will be permitted in the file.
                         Interpreter expects the whole file to be
                         PHP.
2    PHP_TAGS_STANDARD  Enable the classic <?php ?> tags we all know
                         and love.
3    PHP_TAGS_SHORT     Use PHP short tags <? ?> and <?= ?>. Unlike
                         Legacy behavior with short_open_tag set to
                         'on' this setting will NOT let you use
                         <?php ?> alongside the <? ?> and <?= ?>
                         tags.
4    PHP_TAGS_SCRIPT    Script tags <script type="php"></script>
5    PHP_TAGS_ASP       ASP style tags <% %>

And so a script could have an .htaccess file with

php_flag php_tags 1

So the first file the webserver reads in doesn't have to have any opening
tag at all. This would put a stop to the puzzlement of "Why am I getting an
error when I call header()" which I see on programming boards at least once
a week.

The constants above can in turn be coupled to my original recommendation
that include, include_once, require, and require_once each be allowed to
have a second parameter. The default value of the second parmeter is
whatever php_tags is set to at the time the include statement is parsed.

Hence, unlike the current situation with short_open_tag and asp_tag,
php_tags can be changed at runtime using ini_set. The only catch is the
change only affects includes which occur after the setting change.

I believe strongly that this improved recommendation improves the
interoperability of tag styles without creating backwards compatibility
issues or creating future problems.  As for the secondary suggestion I made,
allowing namespaces to be specified in the include statement, I'll drop that
from this recommendation to focus on the changes to tag style setting.

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