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Date: Wed, 18 Sep 2013 14:01:07 +0200
To: David Neilsen <david@pan.co.nz>, Matthew Leverton <leverton@gmail.com>,
	Stuart Langley <slangley@google.com>
CC: Developers PHP Mailing List <internals@lists.php.net>
Subject: Re: [PHP-DEV] [RFC] Keywords as identifiers
From: bobwei9@hotmail.com (Bob Weinand)

Am 18.09.2013 um 09:28 schrieb "David Neilsen" <david@pan.co.nz>:
> "missing any real-world examples of why it might be useful"
>=20
> One thing the I have run across in making my libraries, is the not being
> able to call a function `default`.
>=20
> I use the chainable getter/setter in one syntax a lot (a la jQuery). Hence=

> when I have a class with a property named default, and can not make a
> method in that sense. It makes my API inconsistent as I have to use a
> getDefault, setDefault, when every other method is a single word.
>=20
> Such as:
>=20
> class Foo {
>    public $default;
>    public function default($default =3D null) {
>        if ($default =3D=3D=3D null) {
>            return $this->default;
>        }
>        $this->default =3D $default;
>        return $this;
>    }
> }
>=20
> This might not be the prefered way to write methods, but I don't see why
> the language should restrict me from doing so because the word default is
> used in a different context.
>=20
>=20
> On Wed, Sep 18, 2013 at 5:19 PM, Matthew Leverton <leverton@gmail.com>wrot=
e:
>=20
>> On Tue, Sep 17, 2013 at 7:50 PM, Stuart Langley <slangley@google.com>
>> wrote:
>>> To be honest, looking at the example in the RFC, being able to define a
>>> member function 'new' on a class that completely changes the semantics o=
f
>>> the new operator is a great example of why you would not want this
>> feature.
>> It doesn't change anything because $foo->new() has no intrinsic
>> meaning in PHP. And I don't think the argument "the programmer might
>> do something stupid" ever holds much weight as a no vote against
>> anything. If somebody wants to create a confusing misnomer, he doesn't
>> need this proposed feature to do so.
>>=20
>> But I agree that the RFC is missing any real-world examples of why it
>> might be useful, and that any new language feature should have
>> real-world benefits. Hopefully some more compelling reasons will be
>> added to the RFC.
>>=20
>> Here's something that I've personally done with much shame:
>>=20
>> class Where
>> {
>>  private function _or($lhs, $op =3D null, $rhs =3D null)
>>  {
>>  }
>>=20
>>  public function __call($func_name, $args)
>>  {
>>    if ($func_name =3D=3D 'or')
>>      return call_user_func_array([$this, '_or'], $args);
>>  }
>> }
>>=20
>> $query->where('foo', '=3D', 1)->or('bar', '=3D', 2);
>>=20
>> Imagine that $query->where() returns a Where object. I really want an
>> "or" method because it make things concise & readable, but this is not
>> allowed. So I override the __call method to add such functionality,
>> which adds useless overhead.
>>=20
>> There are a few keywords, such as list and unset, that I often wish I
>> could use in PHP. So in terms of readability, I think any sane
>> programmer would use this proposed functionality for good...
>>=20
>> --
>> Matthew Leverton

Thank you all for your feedback; I was effectively missing a few concrete ex=
amples.

I now added some examples.


Bob Weinand=