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Subject: Re: [PHP-DEV] RFC - Namespace initializers
From: smalyshev@sugarcrm.com (Stas Malyshev)

Hi!

> About namespaced functions and constants, the fact that they are not
> autoloaded makes them useless for any code that wants some good
> packaging. For example I looked at the Doctrine2 code, and (tell me if

This is not true. You can always load stuff manually - in fact, many 
languages don't have any autoloading at all and are just fine.

> I also have a second strong grief against namespaced functions and
> constants : due to their at runtime namespace resolution, static code
> analysis is now very hard, even impossible in the general case! It is

In general case, it always was so. Think of $foo->$bar() - what is being 
called?

> So, my first proposal for namespaced functions and constants is :
> 1. Remove namespaced functions and constants at all - promote
> namespaced public static methods and class consts instead.

This won't happen, for obvious BC reasons. Please re-read the 
discussions on the list about namespaced functions to know what are 
reasons for their existence.

> 2. At runtime, when a namespaced identifier is used (lets say
> \my\sub\ns\class_interface_constant_or_function), take the namespace
> part of the identifier and if any, autoload it as if it were a class,
> do not generate any error if the given class name is not found. (ie,
> trigger something like class_exists('my\sub\ns', true);).

Autoloading for functions/constancs don't seem to have enough benefit to 
justify the complications. As for classes, you can always make you 
autoloader do anything you want with the name it receives.

-- 
Stanislav Malyshev, Software Architect
SugarCRM: http://www.sugarcrm.com/
(408)454-6900 ext. 227