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Date: Mon, 27 Oct 2014 20:27:33 +0000
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To: Rowan Collins <rowan.collins@gmail.com>
Subject: Re: [PHP-DEV] [RFC] Readonly Properties
From: ajf@ajf.me (Andrea Faulds)


> On 26 Oct 2014, at 19:16, Rowan Collins <rowan.collins@gmail.com> =
wrote:
>=20
> I just had a thought on both the naming and future-proofing concerns =
of this proposal: what about pre-emptively reserving the skeleton of the =
syntax needed for accessors, without actually implementing them?

I=E2=80=99ve been thinking about this. While `public readonly $foo;` =
does work, it is confusing (only readonly to public) and limiting (no =
public/private option). Plus, while it could work with getters/setters, =
it=E2=80=99s hardly ideal.

On the other hand, while having C#-style syntax here gives us a full =
feature set, I don=E2=80=99t like that it inverts the order of a =
declaration. To show you what I mean, here=E2=80=99s a normal property:

    public $foobar;

Now, here=E2=80=99s a property with C#-style syntax:

    var $foobar { public get; private set; };

See how the `public` moved to the right? I don=E2=80=99t like that, I =
want to avoid that if possible. I=E2=80=99m all for C#-style syntax with =
the get and set, but I don=E2=80=99t like that it moves the visibility =
specifier.

Similarly, I don=E2=80=99t like this either:

    public $foobar { get; private set; }

Now the visibility is on both sides! Yuck. That=E2=80=99s the worst of =
both worlds.

What I=E2=80=99d like is probably something like this:

    public/private $foobar;

Tentative syntax. But this way, the visibility stays on the left. I =
think that=E2=80=99s good for readability. If you omit the second =
specifier, then the first one applies to getting and setting, as now. If =
you include it, the first one applies to getting, the second one to =
setting.

It=E2=80=99d also be compatible with properties, too:

    public/private $foobar {
        get { return $this->bar * $this->foo; }
        set($value) { $this->bar =3D $value / $this->foo; }
    }

It doesn=E2=80=99t prevent truly read-only properties, either:

    public $foobar {
        get { return $this->bar * $this->foo; }
    }

Does this sound like a good idea? A similar idea came up in the =
discussions 8 years ago on readonly.

--
Andrea Faulds
http://ajf.me/