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Date: Thu, 18 Feb 2016 22:14:24 +0100
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Subject: Re: [PHP-DEV] [RFC Proposal] var keyword deprecation/removal
From: php@fleshgrinder.com (Fleshgrinder)

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On 2/18/2016 9:58 PM, Colin O'Dell wrote:
>> What are your reasons for this proposal?
>> 
>> I can think of multiple reasons why this might not be a good
>> idea, but the only reason that pops to mind for getting rid of it
>> is to make PHP work like a different style of language.
> 
> I'm proposing this change because it will remove duplicate
> functionality from the language.
> 
> In PHP 4, "var" was the only way to declare a class member
> variable.  PHP 5 introduced three new keywords for this purpose:
> public, protected, and private.  "public" is functionally identical
> to "var".  According to the docs:
> 
>> Class properties must be defined as public, private, or
>> protected. If declared using var, the property will be defined as
>> public.
> 
> This is great for backwards compatibility from PHP 4, but it
> ultimately results in having two different keywords which do
> exactly the same thing. Does PHP 7 really need two keywords for
> declaring public class members?
> 
> We're already removing PHP 4 style constructors in favor of the PHP
> 5 style ones, so why not also remove the PHP 4 "var" keyword in
> favor of the PHP 5 style keywords which explicitly state the
> visibility?
> 
> For the small percentage of projects which still use "var",
> upgrading their code would be dead simple: just replace "var" with
> "public" everywhere you see it.  I'm sure somebody can easily whip
> up a tool to automate that process.
> 
> Because current usage of "var" seems low and the upgrade path is so
> simple, I don't think its a bad idea.
> 
> Colin
> 

+1 for Colin’s proposal. Duplicate functionality results in confusion
and this should be avoided and cleaned-up. There are already way too
many aliased functions just to ease the learning curve for people that
come from other languages (whatever that should bring to PHP).

- -- 
Richard "Fleshgrinder" Fussenegger
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