Newsgroups: php.internals
Path: news.php.net
Xref: news.php.net php.internals:85224
Mailing-List: contact internals-help@lists.php.net; run by ezmlm
Received-SPF: pass (pb1.pair.com: domain gmail.com designates 209.85.214.171 as permitted sender)
MIME-Version: 1.0
Sender: morrison.levi@gmail.com
In-Reply-To: <550B0281.5000300@gmail.com>
References: <54BEC072.5000507@mabe.berlin>
	<CAF+90c97pHH7+qnxV61RjTRv3-vOzHn9oGva3wHVGgbMEE=aSw@mail.gmail.com>
	<AAD87184-07B2-4E93-B872-1F2587CA9260@ajf.me>
	<54C28B63.1040506@gmail.com>
	<54C2E405.4090204@gmail.com>
	<A89BD51A-C383-4837-AADF-7FFED75374DC@gmail.com>
	<CAOWwgpmx8skuv4pQTkwft7E_TyjTgd9hsji5Or55Gx60_ucsnA@mail.gmail.com>
	<CAGa2bXZCpFYO41+wfd9nzqDV6jiBMEHnha1rprtEHa7mMBBD=A@mail.gmail.com>
	<CAOjCV8xo9hOAk8+zNXk1_V6BRP+kFkUgAasBQwgbzBGQvxxU3Q@mail.gmail.com>
	<CALW=WEANpfM9Pdhkpf-+hj3te0iwDDvZqmxt3J+_NAAJyt6niQ@mail.gmail.com>
	<CAOjCV8ysLrJo5e2Xyhuzsy93oHJZDqxcap8AwMk8sgeo4nybaA@mail.gmail.com>
	<550B0281.5000300@gmail.com>
Date: Thu, 19 Mar 2015 11:48:11 -0600
Message-ID: <CAFMT4Nr6+vaCa6phFKHxs+ad_YDB=qjtDETSQXCTFe8puq4Czg@mail.gmail.com>
To: Rowan Collins <rowan.collins@gmail.com>
Cc: "Sebastian B.-Hagensen" <sbj.ml.read@gmail.com>, "S.A.N" <ua.san.alex@gmail.com>, 
	Yasuo Ohgaki <yohgaki@ohgaki.net>, Nicolas Grekas <nicolas.grekas+php@gmail.com>, 
	"internals@lists.php.net" <internals@lists.php.net>, Stanislav Malyshev <smalyshev@gmail.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8
Subject: Re: [PHP-DEV] Inconsistencies in callable, call_user_func and direct
 variable calls
From: levim@php.net (Levi Morrison)

> There's then the question of what kind of object it would return - a
> Closure? Some child or sibling of Closure? What methods could be usefully
> provided?

Yes, it's a closure. I've actually fleshed this out quite a bit, and
there are a few important questions:

 - With methods do you allow unbound closures? `callable("Foo::method")` ?
 - How do you provide a context object? Two parameters? If so, what
order? The object first makes more sense, but that means you have a
string for your first parameter when there is only one, but an object
if there are two. So you put the context second and it's kind of weird
to do `callable("method", $foo)`

Also note that if we had a unified table for properties, methods and
constatns this is vastly simplified:
  -  $foo::method could provide an unbound, scoped closure
  - $foo->method could provide a bound closure

Or you do alternative grammar rules inside of callable, such that
`callable(foo::method)` must would check for a method instead of a
constant.

All in all, I really wish we had unified properties, methods and
constants. It would also have the advantage that if you have a
property of an object that is a callable you could call it with normal
syntax `$foo->property()` instead of having to do things like `$f =
$foo->property; $f()`.

Callable might work, though.