php7- dropping the $ from the variable name - rfc

Alain Williams wrote:

Actually, I somehow understand what he wants, considering we'll soon have lambdas and closures. I mean, in case of javascript a variable can hold as well a function as it can hold anything else.
Anyway, I don't think this is the case for PHP. I do find it ugly to write $function(), but I guess I'll live with it as I did until now.

So if you drop the '$' the way that you call a function referenced in variable
'funref' is not:

$funref()

but

funref()

However: the PHP parser will take that to be a call to a function named 'funref'.
So you need to change the syntax to, perhaps, something like C:

(funref)()

I can't see people understanding that.
Stick with what we have.

There is no difference between a function and a variable which holds a
closure in many languages (e.q. JavaScript, LUA, ...), so you don't need
any extra syntax rules.

function foo() {
}
foo();

var bar = function() {
}
bar();

It's not possible to make the same unification with PHP's $, however I
don't see a way to remove $.

Thanks. Dmitry.

On Thu, Sep 18, 2008 at 9:09 PM, Arvids Godjuks
arvids.godjuks@gmail.com wrote:

Well, you can do that right now, PHP supports that for ages.

<?php
$myVar = 'print';
$myVar('Hello!'); // Outputs hello
?>

Partly because I can't resist being smug, partly because it might
confuse someone, I have to point out that that example won't work,
because pint isn't a function. It would work with most everything else
though.

--
troels

Since these are all valid requests (I really enjoyed the euro sign
one), I'd suggest to import some ideas from Fortran and Python.

The first request is to remove the ; sign. It's annoying and everyone
here knows it. =)

My second request is is column identing.
PHP should support = assignment if defined in column 0, example:

<?php

$foo "value" // equivalent to $foo = "value"; nowadays

And since we may have to deal with other interesting situations (like
+=, -=, etc), you should put the sign before left expression

• $foo "value" // which means $foo += "value";

The idea should be followed for:
0 equivalent to = assignment
1 equivalent to method or function call
2 function or method definition
3 normal code
4 loop
...

The idea is very simple and imagine this source that currently works:

class Foo
{
public static function bar()
{
$str = '';

    for ($i = 0, $l = 10; $i < $l; $i++)
    {
        $str += '[' . $i . ']';
    }

    return $str;
}

}

Will be simplified a lot into (and also include the euro sign suggestion):

class Foo
static bar()
€str ''

€i = 0, €l = 10; €i < €l; €i++

• €str '[' . €i . ']'

  return €str

Of course this is just a RFC and we should start endless discussions
to define new terminals in grammar, but I would love to see that into
PHP 7!!!!

Cheers,

Hello Ionut,

a Friend suggested to replace it with a Euro sign, so that PHP code gets
worth more :-)

marcus

Thursday, September 18, 2008, 8:30:37 PM, you wrote:

Actually, I somehow understand what he wants, considering we'll soon
have lambdas and closures. I mean, in case of javascript a variable can
hold as well a function as it can hold anything else. Anyway, I don't
think this is the case for PHP. I do find it ugly to write $function(),
but I guess I'll live with it as I did until now.

Cheers,
I. Stan

----- Original Message ----
From: Brian Moon brianm@dealnews.com
To: mike mike503@gmail.com
Cc: marius popa mapopa@gmail.com; internals@lists.php.net
Sent: Thursday, September 18, 2008 9:06:11 PM
Subject: Re: [PHP-DEV] php7- dropping the $ from the variable name - rfc

mike wrote:

Personally I love the $. It makes it so much easier to identify
variables. It's a single character. Can't see the need honestly to
even bring this up.

+1,000,000. Horrible idea. facepalm

--

Brian Moon
Senior Web Engineer

When you care enough to spend the very least.
http://dealnews.com/

--

Best regards,
Marcus

--

--
Guilherme Blanco - Web Developer
CBC - Certified Bindows Consultant
Cell Phone: +55 (16) 9166-6902
MSN: guilhermeblanco@hotmail.com
URL: http://blog.bisna.com
Rio de Janeiro - RJ/Brazil

Marcus Boerger kirjoitti:

Hello Ionut,

a Friend suggested to replace it with a Euro sign, so that PHP code gets
worth more :-)

Hey, why not make it configurable (ini option) ?! :D

--Jani

marcus

Thursday, September 18, 2008, 8:30:37 PM, you wrote:

Actually, I somehow understand what he wants, considering we'll soon
have lambdas and closures. I mean, in case of javascript a variable can
hold as well a function as it can hold anything else. Anyway, I don't
think this is the case for PHP. I do find it ugly to write $function(),
but I guess I'll live with it as I did until now.

Cheers,
I. Stan

----- Original Message ----
From: Brian Moon brianm@dealnews.com
To: mike mike503@gmail.com
Cc: marius popa mapopa@gmail.com; internals@lists.php.net
Sent: Thursday, September 18, 2008 9:06:11 PM
Subject: Re: [PHP-DEV] php7- dropping the $ from the variable name - rfc

mike wrote:

Personally I love the $. It makes it so much easier to identify
variables. It's a single character. Can't see the need honestly to
even bring this up.

+1,000,000. Horrible idea. facepalm

--

Brian Moon
Senior Web Engineer

When you care enough to spend the very least.
http://dealnews.com/

--

Best regards,
Marcus