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Thread-Topic: [PHP-DEV] [RFC] Propety Accessors v1.1
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Date: Wed, 10 Oct 2012 11:53:04 +0000
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Subject: RE: [PHP-DEV] [RFC] Propety Accessors v1.1
From: cpriest@zerocue.com (Clint Priest)

> On 10 October 2012 01:16, Johannes Schl=FCter <johannes@schlueters.de> wr=
ote:
> > Up until now reflection is leaky and is telling the truth. We should
> > either keep that or completely clean up reflection.
>=20
> Reflection should always tell the truth, or there is no point in it.
>=20

Unfortunately the "truth" here is subjective. =20

Does the PHP programmer need the "truth of underlying language implementati=
on details" or do they need the "truth" of what they've defined? =20

I would argue that if the PHP programmer has defined a property accessor th=
en the truth to him/her is that it's a property accessor and should be "ref=
lected" as such.  The fact that the underlying php language implements it i=
nternally as a series of functions isn't relevant and is a distortion of th=
e truth, from the perspective of the PHP programmer.

> On 10 October 2012 04:28, David Muir <davidkmuir@gmail.com> wrote:
> > That said, it wouldn't help for scalar values, and that leads to a
> > problem with the current syntax (AFAICS). You can't specify the
> > initial value for a
> > property:
>=20
> This is one of the points I was trying to get across, there is currently =
no way to set the default value*. If your setter performs some
> sort of calculation on the value, then you're going to have to reverse th=
at process in order to set the initial value constructor.
>=20
> *Unless you use the following highly confusing approach.
>=20
> class MyClass {
>     protected $__property =3D 'default';
>=20
>     public $property {
>         get;
>     }
> }
>=20
> --
> PHP Internals - PHP Runtime Development Mailing List To unsubscribe, visi=
t: http://www.php.net/unsub.php

Property accessors are not properties, they do not have their own data stor=
age "memory space."

Let's take a big example here, lets expand on the TimePeriod class...

class TimePeriod {
	private $_Seconds =3D 600;

	public $Seconds {
		get { return $this->_Seconds; }
		set { $this->_Seconds =3D $value; }
	}
	public $Minutes {
		get { return $this->Seconds / 60; }
		set { $this->Seconds =3D $value * 60; }
	}
	public $Hours {
		get { return $this->Seconds / 3600; }
		set { $this->Seconds =3D $value * 3600; }=20
	}
	public $Days { ... }
	public $Weeks { ... }
	public $Months { ... }
	public $Years { ... }
	public $Decades { ... }
	public $Centuries { ... }
}

Now, this class's data space is one variable ($_Seconds), if we were to som=
e-how deviate from (afaik) every other language which implements property a=
ccessors and create a "memory space" for every property accessor (none of w=
hich would be used by the above code), this classes data space now becomes =
10 variables, only 1 of which is used.

I'll take this example to another language many people should be familiar w=
ith, Javascript:

{
	_Seconds: 600,
	get Seconds() { return this._Seconds; },
	get Minutes() { return this._Seconds / 60; }
	get Hours() { return this._Seconds / 3600; }
	...
}

These 'getters' do not get their own memory space allocated, they  *are not=
* properties, they are getters.