PHP 4.0 Bug #4612 Updated: Too much of $this

ID: 4612 User Update by: Jim.Moores@quickstone.com Status: Open Bug Type: Feature/Change Request Description: Too much of $this There are several options: 1) When you come across an identifier you haven't seen before - see if it is already declared as a symbol in the containing class and assume it refer's to that if it is. This has the problem that it is not compatible with previous versions of PHP. 2) Make it compulsary to declare local variables, then use the normal strategy, which is to treat as a local variable if one is declared, else treat as a class variable, else treat as a global. This is also not backwards compatible. 3) Introduce a new keyword - similar in concept to global - that declares an identifier as refering to a member: the keyword `member' would be a good candidate - this would also be backwards compatible. The disadvantage of this scheme is that it'd be a pain (but probably not as much as $this). 4) Introduce some sort of pragma indicating to the compiler that this function is aware that you are using strategy 1) or 2). For example you could delcare functions: member function get_property($x) { ... } or come up with a replacement new keyword: method get_property($x) { ... } that has this different property - its better to declare variables anyway :) I think option 4) is most desirable, and option 3) is the easiest to do. I doubt you guys would even consider breaking compatibility. Option 4 also gives you the option of introducing other OO things such as public/private/package if you like that sort of thing. And you can still support all the legacy code. Full Bug description available at: http://bugs.php.net/version4/?id=4612