Re: Re: Design points (was: parent_ctor())

Stanislav Malyshev wrote: > KK>> Actually, I consider the ability to keep structures with references > KK>> across serialization essential (*1), and the language below should make > KK>> this easy, or at least possible. > > But that doesn't mean PHP references don't work right. They aren't just a > tool for what you want to do (yet?) You are right, PHP references are just a tool, and currently an inadequate tool. > KK>> (*1) As I explained, referenced are to data structures what foreign > KK>> keys are to sql tables. They are needed to normalize a design. > > BTW, not that SQL tables _do not_ have any "references". In most > implementations, AFAIK, foreign keys work in entirely different way. In > SQL foreign key is a property of the table, not the row, AFAIK. So to make > 1-1 correspondence between SQL foreign keys and PHP references is not > right. A SQL table is a programming language type (specifically, a C-struct or a similar construct in other languages). A C struct like struct bla { int a; float b; char c[80]; }; is a SQL table create table bla ( a integer, b decimal, c char(80) ); Staying with C, a foreign key is a table property just as a pointer is a property of the struct and not a variable of that struct type: struct bla { ... int *d; }; and create table bla ( ... d integer references fasel.d ); Now, if you have a variable of type "struct bla" this is just as having a row in table "bla". Kristian -- Kristian Köhntopp, NetUSE AG Siemenswall, D-24107 Kiel Tel: +49 431 386 436 00, Fax: +49 431 386 435 99 Using PHP3? See our web development library at http://phplib.netuse.de/