# [VOTE] Deprecate and remove case-insensitive constants - Thread: https://externals.io/message/102656 - Original archive: https://news-web.php.net/php.internals/102656 - Started by Nikita Popov on 2018-07-09T08:36:46+00:00 - Messages: 8 - Reply by email to internals@lists.php.net - More for agents: search with https://externals.io/search.md?q={query} · JSON API at https://externals.io/api · documentation at https://externals.io/llms.txt --- ## #102656 — Nikita Popov — 2018-07-09T08:36:46+00:00 URL: https://externals.io/message/102656#102656 Hi, I would like to open the vote on the RFC for the deprecation (in PHP 7.3) and removal (in PHP 8.0) of case-insensitive constants. https://wiki.php.net/rfc/case_insensitive_constant_deprecation If you missed the discussion for this RFC, you can read up on it here: https://externals.io/message/102389 As this is a language change, the vote requires a 2/3 supermajority. The vote will be open until 2018-07-09. Regards, Nikita --- ## #102658 — Nikita Popov — 2018-07-09T09:06:17+00:00 URL: https://externals.io/message/102656#102658 · In reply to: #102656 > Hi, > > I would like to open the vote on the RFC for the deprecation (in PHP 7.3) > and removal (in PHP 8.0) of case-insensitive constants. > > https://wiki.php.net/rfc/case_insensitive_constant_deprecation > > If you missed the discussion for this RFC, you can read up on it here: > > https://externals.io/message/102389 > > As this is a language change, the vote requires a 2/3 supermajority. The > vote will be open until 2018-07-09. > Whoops, this was supposed to be 2018-07-16. Nikita --- ## #102671 — Andrea Faulds — 2018-07-09T16:18:48+00:00 URL: https://externals.io/message/102656#102671 · In reply to: #102656 Hi Nikita, I'm a terrible person for only bringing this up now (I apologise for not following the list as closely as I used to), but one reason case-insensitive constants are maybe useful is they leave open the possibility of being able to access functions as values in future: like some constants, function names are case-insensitive, and a fallback could be added to constant accesses to return a closure of the function with the same name if no constant is found. Of course, removing case-insensitive constants wouldn't preclude such a feature, just make it a little more annoying to implement, so this is not really a significant reason to vote against. To that end, I'll vote in favour of this deprecation. Thanks! -- Andrea Faulds https://ajf.me/ --- ## #102722 — Niklas Keller — 2018-07-10T17:18:05+00:00 URL: https://externals.io/message/102656#102722 · In reply to: #102671 > Hi Nikita, > > I'm a terrible person for only bringing this up now (I apologise for not > following the list as closely as I used to), but one reason > case-insensitive constants are maybe useful is they leave open the > possibility of being able to access functions as values in future: like > some constants, function names are case-insensitive, and a fallback > could be added to constant accesses to return a closure of the function > with the same name if no constant is found. > > Of course, removing case-insensitive constants wouldn't preclude such a > feature, just make it a little more annoying to implement, so this is > not really a significant reason to vote against. To that end, I'll vote > in favour of this deprecation. No, thanks. The fallback is already a bad thing for functions, we don't need another one. If such a feature would be implemented, it'd probably be via combined symbol tables, making either everything case-insensitive or everything case-sensitive. Regards, Niklas --- ## #102862 — Nikita Popov — 2018-07-16T17:00:33+00:00 URL: https://externals.io/message/102656#102862 · In reply to: #102656 > Hi, > > I would like to open the vote on the RFC for the deprecation (in PHP 7.3) > and removal (in PHP 8.0) of case-insensitive constants. > > https://wiki.php.net/rfc/case_insensitive_constant_deprecation > > If you missed the discussion for this RFC, you can read up on it here: > > https://externals.io/message/102389 > > As this is a language change, the vote requires a 2/3 supermajority. The > vote will be open until 2018-07-09. > I'm happy to announce that this RFC has been accepted unanimously with 39 votes in favor and 0 against. Nikita --- ## #102904 — Christoph M. Becker — 2018-07-17T22:18:54+00:00 URL: https://externals.io/message/102656#102904 · In reply to: #102862 > > > > […] > > I'm happy to announce that this RFC has been accepted unanimously with 39 > votes in favor and 0 against. Looking back at , I'm pleasantly surprised! Thanks! -- Christoph M. Becker --- ## #104303 — Nikita Popov — 2019-02-08T08:59:19+00:00 URL: https://externals.io/message/102656#104303 On Thu, Feb 7, 2019 at 11:31 PM Christoph M. Becker wrote: > > > > […] > wrote: > > […] > 7.3) > > […] > > I just learned that com_load_typelib()[1] automatically registers enum > members as constants, and allows to register them as case-insensitive > (the default is case-sensitive, despite the documentation, which I'm > going to fix right away). If a typelib is implicitly loaded, > com.autoregister_casesensitive[2] controls whether constants are > registered case-sensitively or not. It seems to me com_load_typelib() > should trigger a deprecation warning, if `FALSE` is passed as second > argument, and also disabling com.autoregister_casesensitive should. > > Can this be amemded for PHP 7.3.3, or are there any objections? > > [1] > [2] > < > http://php.net/manual/en/com.configuration.php#ini.com.autoregister-casesensitive > > […] > Thanks for pointing this out! Agree that both of those should be deprecated ... in fact the necessary for code handling case-insensitive constants is already gone in master, so they'll definitely have to go as well. Personally I think it would be best to add the deprecations in 7.4, as there's no particular rush and we usually don't add deprecations in patch releases. I don't have a problem with them being added in 7.3.3 either though, this is not exactly prime functionality and we're early in the release cycle... Nikita --- ## #104352 — Christoph M. Becker — 2019-02-11T19:00:34+00:00 URL: https://externals.io/message/102656#104352 > On Thu, Feb 7, 2019 at 11:31 PM Christoph M. Becker > wrote: > > > […] > > Thanks for pointing this out! Agree that both of those should be deprecated > .... in fact the necessary for code handling case-insensitive constants is > already gone in master, so they'll definitely have to go as well. > > Personally I think it would be best to add the deprecations in 7.4, as > there's no particular rush and we usually don't add deprecations in patch > releases. I don't have a problem with them being added in 7.3.3 either > though, this is not exactly prime functionality and we're early in the > release cycle... Postponing this to 7.4 is fine for me. I'll provide a respective PR within the next days. -- Christoph M. Becker