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Date: Tue, 10 May 2011 10:02:45 +0200
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Subject: Re: [PHP-DEV] annotations again
From: lars.schultz@toolpark.com (Lars Schultz)

Am 10.05.2011 09:44, schrieb Ferenc Kovacs:
> On Tue, May 10, 2011 at 9:01 AM, Chad Fulton<chadfulton@gmail.com>  wrote:
>
>> On Mon, May 9, 2011 at 10:46 PM, Lester Caine<lester@lsces.co.uk>  wrote:
>>> *IS* it clear by now that the majority of users want this?
>>
>> For what it's worth, I still oppose Annotations.
>>
>>> And the argument
>>> that 'You don't have to use it' does not wash either since once it has
>> been
>>> pushed in, some of the libraries we are using are going to start
>> requiring
>>> it simply because those developers do like the idea, but it does not
>>> necessarily mean that THE CURRENT PROPOSAL is the right way of doing it?
>>
>> I especially oppose the complexity of the current proposal. One of the
>> reasons I prefer PHPDoc to the proposed Annotations is because they're
>> a simple key=>value syntax.
>>
>
> that would be the same argument that we don't need objects because we have
> arrays, and if you only need something to store your structures, then both
> can be used for that.
>
>
>>
>> I'm already doing my coding in PHP - why do I have to code in a new
>> sub-language when all I want is a litte bit of meta-data?
>>
>
> nobody is forcing you to use annotations, it won't replace the docblocks.
>
>
>>
>> My main question is: Why do we need more than key=>value? When you say
>> that "everyone" supports annotations (if that is true), are you sure
>> they actually want more than key=>value?
>>
>
> at least Doctrine, Symfony and FLOW3 does.
> Sebastian expressed that he is fine with the current Docblock support for
> PHPUnit.
> the FLOW3 used to use single key values in the past, but I'm not familiar
> with the current situation.
>
> for actual use-cases you can check
> http://blog.seric.at/2011/05/03/annotations-with-symfony2/
> or
> http://www.doctrine-project.org/docs/orm/2.0/en/reference/annotations-reference.html#annref-column
>
>
>
>>
>> Discussion of this does not seem to appear in your "Why do we need
>> Class Metadata?" section.
>>
>
> I also think that it would be a good idea to link or describe annotations in
> general, because it seems that nobody bothers to read that up without
> joining the conversation...
>
> Tyrael
>

 From the user-end perspective, what I don't understand is this:

What is the goal of having Annotations embedded in PHP? To nail down a 
common syntax? To provide an interface for meta-information on a class?

Why can't this be PHP code? Why should I have to learn a whole new kind 
of syntax? We already have a common syntax (PHP interface) for this as 
well as an interface (static Class-functions/Object-methods).

To explain what I mean, I'll use the example provided in the RFC. Could 
anyone please explain the advantages of having "passive" annotations 
over "active" PHP Code.

<Entity("users")>
class User
{
     <Column("integer")>
     <Id>
     <GeneratedValue("AUTO")>
     protected $id;

     // ...

     <ManyToMany("Phonenumber")>
     protected $Phonenumbers;
}

*** Example ***

class User implements EntityAnnotation {
	protected $id;
	protected $Phonenumbers;
	
	public function getEntityAnnotation(){
		return new User_EntityAnnotation();
	}
}

class User_EntityAnnotation {
	public function getEntityName(){
		return 'users';
	}
	
	public function getColumnInfo($property){
		switch( $property ) {
			case 'id': return array(
				'column'=>'integer',
				'isPrimary'=>true,
				'autoIncrement'=>true
			);
			
			case 'Phonenumbers': return array(
				'manytomany'=>'Phonenumber'
			);
	    }
     }
}

***************