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Date: Thu, 28 Apr 2016 10:36:40 +0100
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Subject: Re: [PHP-DEV] [RFC] PHP Annotations VS Attributes
From: rowan.collins@gmail.com (Rowan Collins)

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Fleshgrinder wrote on 27/04/2016 21:11:
> I am writing this in a separate thread because of the urgency that I see
> regarding the naming of past, current, and future proposals regarding
> this functionality.

While I personally prefer the name "annotations", I don't see it as 
particularly urgent, or nearly as clear-cut as you claim.

I clicked through on your MSDN link [1] because I was pretty sure .net 
referred to them as "attributes", and am amused to find sentences like this:

 > The System.ComponentModel.DataAnnotations namespace contains the 
classes that are used as data attributes.

In other words, the implementer of that particular library preferred the 
word "annotations", but the language/framework itself calls them 
"attributes"; here's a nice summary [2]:

 > For example, the accessibility of a method in a class is specified by 
decorating it with the /method-modifiers/ |public|, |protected|, 
|internal|, and |private|. C# enables programmers to invent new kinds of 
declarative information, called attributes.

So, that's one rather large ecosystem that calls them "attributes".

Your claims for Perl also don't make much sense:

> Last but not least, Perl has/attribute/  support. However, Perl actually
> uses it for interaction with*all*  attributes that can be set. Hence,
> this is what attributes really do.
>
> http://perldoc.perl.org/attributes.html

None of the built-in attributes mentioned in that manual are standard 
syntax used in the majority of Perl programs; in fact, they are all 
marked as experimental, and most of the examples are of defining custom 
attributes. As far as I can see, this is Perl's version of precisely the 
feature that is being proposed for PHP.

I haven't looked through any of your other links to see if you've fallen 
foul of similar confirmation bias, but am satisfied in my mind that 
there are plenty of people outside Hack who call them "attributes".


[1] https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd901590%28VS.95%29.aspx
[2] https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa664611%28v=vs.71%29.aspx

Regards,
-- 
Rowan Collins
[IMSoP]

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