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Date: Tue, 26 Feb 2013 07:39:23 -0800
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To: Nikita Popov <nikita.ppv@gmail.com>
Cc: Mike Willbanks <pencap@gmail.com>, PHP Internals <internals@lists.php.net>
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Subject: Re: [PHP-DEV] Add get_object_constants and get_class_constants
From: pollita@php.net (Sara Golemon)

>> Before drafting an RFC I would like to gauge interest in adding:
>> get_object_constants and get_class_constants
>>
>> I have already drafted up a PR with the changes and supplemental data:
>> https://github.com/php/php-src/pull/292
>>
You took the time to make a PR, but not an RFC?  This should really be
the other way around (if at all).


>> Currently this can only be done through ReflectionClass which is far slower
>> than retrieving them directly from the constants table.  Some simple
>> timings show that through reflection retrieving these values is 2-3 times
>> slower than providing a quick access function for retrieval.
>>
> I don't quite see why we need this. The only argument seems to be
> performance and I'm not quite sure why performance would be relevant here.
> At least I can't imagine in what kind of code fetching the class constants
> is a bottleneck.
>
I'm meh on the perf issue.  Yeah it's probably there, but it's buried
in the noise and I'm not so sure about use-cases.  Not against it for
its own sake though.

>> This also fits nicely amongst the current stack of:
>> get_object_vars, get_class_vars and get_class_methods
>>
>
Yay! Consistency!  Boo! Poorly named get_*() methods should have been
called something else from the get-go, but it's too late for that.
Honestly, this is the bit that bugs me most.

>> These functions are commonly asked about on areas such as StackOverflow (
>>
>> http://stackoverflow.com/questions/956401/can-i-get-consts-defined-on-a-php-class
>> )
>> amongst other places on the net.
>>
>
I... kinda don't care about this part of the argument.  It's called
"Google", and if they can't find it in Reflection, they won't find it
here.

-Sara