Object Oriented standard Library

I can certainly see a use for strings as Value Objects, if only for
readability. Chaining a series of methods is much more readable (to me at
least) than wrapping a series of functions. See:

$str = $str->substr(0, 5)->upper()->trim('\n');

vs.

$str = trim(strtoupper(substr(0, 5, $str)), '\n');

That said, the advantage of functions is that you can trivially add your own.
Adding new methods to a class in PHP requires either inheritance (which is
very limiting in many ways) or all sorts of thoroughly weird mechanisms for
sorta implementing mix-ins. I see that as a more limiting factor than using
functions instead of methods.

(Not to say that value objects, auto-boxing, prototype inheritance, and other
semi-functional features aren't cool; I'd love to have more of those in PHP,
but they're a considerably harder problem to solve.)

I would also dispute the idea that "everything is a class/object" is a
necessary design feature of a "mature OO language". It's a design feature of
Java, which is sort of the poster child of classic OO. But Javascript takes
an entirely different, functional-esque approach of everything is an object,
including classes. (Weird but cool.) Python, Perl, and Ruby do their own
weird things. C++ has multiple inheritance. I'm sure there's other
languages I should mention that I am missing, but you get the idea.

Don't make things an object unless there's a reason to. Most of the
OOP "features" that PHP lacks that would be useful to have are, IMO, the more
functional-esque stuff from Javascript and its ilk, not classes-all-around.

Thanks. I was not aware of SPL's file and array classes. As for the string
class, some of it is done, and should work in 5.x HEAD. I fully plan to add
Unicode support for PHP 6's HEAD. Is there any other concerns you may have
about a string class (other than it being a big task)? I think it would be
great to unify, and standardize all the string functions in PHP into a
class.

I don't want to rewrite anything already written, so I'll go ahead and take
a look at ArrayObject and ArrayIterator. I'd love to help PHP as much as
possible.

Thanks,
Jordan.

-----Original Message-----
From: Marcus Boerger [mailto:helly@php.net]
Sent: Monday, December 03, 2007 12:18 PM
To: Jordan Wambaugh
Cc: internals@lists.php.net
Subject: Re: [PHP-DEV] Object Oriented standard Library

Hello Jordan,

have a look at the SPL extension (Standard PHP Library) which introduces
a few things (for instance SplFile). Have a look here:
http://php.net/~helly I do not think we need a string class right now
unless you want to provide a full unicode one that later works with HEAD
seamingly. If you are intersted, then the ArrayObject/ArrayIterator
implementation in SPL can be made much faster. I know what to do but have
no time for that...
and as always, help is always welcome here
and if you have something to show, then show us :-)

marcus

Monday, December 3, 2007, 5:43:19 PM, you wrote:

I am currently working on a Object-Oriented Library extension that wraps
a lot of functionality in PHP's standard library dealing with strings,
arrays, fileIO, etc. into classes.

(String class, Collection class, etc.)

This would allow end-users to create objects that represent data types
and resources, and take advantage of all the benefits of OOP (object
chaining, polymorphism, etc) all in a c compiled extension.

Example:

$myString=new String("Hello world!");

$myLowerCaseString =
$myString->copy()->replace("world","universe")->lowerCase();

The goal of this project is to help PHP mature into a more
object-oriented language with an object oriented library, while
addressing a common complaint about the standard library not being very
consistent
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Php#Criticism [8th bullet])

I have already implemented a couple classes, but would like to get

feedback

from the PHP development community on the idea of creating such a library
for PHP. Also, any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,

Jordan Wambaugh

Best regards,
Marcus

--
Larry Garfield AIM: LOLG42
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