#36491 [NEW]: have abstract class instatiation throw exception

From: aarone at klamathsystems dot com Operating system: Windows PHP version: 5.1.2 PHP Bug Type: Feature/Change Request Bug description: have abstract class instatiation throw exception Description: ------------ would like to have abstract class instatiation throw exception instead of raise a fatal error. One use case would be dynamic library loading when the application has to discover which library it needs. What are the obstacles to having exceptions caught for runtime errors such as attempting to instantiate an abstract class? I could probably think of other instances (especially of older functions that could be upgraded to php5) that could benefit for the robustness this would allow. If the tradeoff is for speed or efficiency, that's understandable, but it would be nice to have an exception that could be caught and recovered from instead of a fatal error. Example below: Reproduce code: --------------- abstract class Foo { } class Bar extends Foo {} try { $foo = new Foo(); } catch (Exception e) { //Foo is an abstract class, use concrete class Bar instead $foo = new Bar(); } -- Edit bug report at http://bugs.php.net/?id=36491&edit=1 -- Try a CVS snapshot (PHP 4.4): http://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=36491&r=trysnapshot44 Try a CVS snapshot (PHP 5.1): http://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=36491&r=trysnapshot51 Try a CVS snapshot (PHP 6.0): http://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=36491&r=trysnapshot60 Fixed in CVS: http://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=36491&r=fixedcvs Fixed in release: http://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=36491&r=alreadyfixed Need backtrace: http://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=36491&r=needtrace Need Reproduce Script: http://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=36491&r=needscript Try newer version: http://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=36491&r=oldversion Not developer issue: http://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=36491&r=support Expected behavior: http://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=36491&r=notwrong Not enough info: http://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=36491&r=notenoughinfo Submitted twice: http://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=36491&r=submittedtwice register_globals: http://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=36491&r=globals PHP 3 support discontinued: http://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=36491&r=php3 Daylight Savings: http://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=36491&r=dst IIS Stability: http://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=36491&r=isapi Install GNU Sed: http://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=36491&r=gnused Floating point limitations: http://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=36491&r=float No Zend Extensions: http://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=36491&r=nozend MySQL Configuration Error: http://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=36491&r=mysqlcfg