[RFC] [Vote] New ext-dom features in PHP 8.4 View as Markdown

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>     Hi internals
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>     I'm opening the vote of my RFC "New ext-dom features in PHP 8.4".
>     RFC link: https://wiki.php.net/rfc/dom_additions_84 <https://wiki.php.net/rfc/dom_additions_84>; <https://wiki.php.net/rfc/dom_additions_84 <https://wiki.php.net/rfc/dom_additions_84>>;
>     Voting runs until 24th of June 21:00 GMT+2.
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>     Kind regards
>     Niels
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> Question: why is `Dom\Document::$head` marked as readonly?

The HTML spec defines the head property to be readonly: https://html.spec.whatwg.org/#document <https://html.spec.whatwg.org/#document>;
That's why $head is marked readonly.

So I guess the question becomes "why does the HTML spec define it this way?"
I couldn't find a conclusive answer to this, it looks like this has been read-only since HTML's early days...
I thought about it but don't really see a technical reason why this is the case. If I had to take a guess I'd say it's for simplicity sake.
> he/him

I can understand that from a browser perspective, but from PHP, where we might be manipulating HTML to send back to the client, having it readonly would be a pretty big hindrance. 

Would it?
Note that only the binding is readonly, you can manipulate the head element as you wish.
e.g. $doc->head->replaceWith($another_element); is still possible and not much more difficult than $doc->head = $another_element;.

I could add a setter for the head element, but what if WHATWG defines a setter for the head element at a later point in time that's incompatible with what I added?
It may sound far-fetched, but that's not unreasonable given that setting the $body property is way more complicated than just find+replace <body> (e.g. handles framesets too).

Kind regards
Niels