RE: PHP 4.0 Bug #6193 Updated: new object makes a shallow copy

Waldschrott, I completely agree to your statement below. Plus, it's trist. One single change and many problems in PHP oo behaviour would disapeare. The change: 1.) The new constructor always returns references or alternatelly we would need a syntax like &new 2.) The assignment operator handles references as references not as the value of the reference. The benefit: 1) The constructor works as any other member function! 2) The performance of an object constructor get's MUCH faster. From my e-mail discussion yesterday with Stanislav, I understood: $myinstance= new MyClass(...); This simple instruction generates from my understand 2 or 3 shallow copies in the background before it finishes!!!!!!! 3) That's may be most important: PHP would have no problems with circular references anymore. I have tested it - PHP can handle circular references w/o problems. Surely enough - as with any other language e.g. Java, C++, Perl - the programmer of circular referenced data structure must carefully clean the structure (destruct). 4) My definition of a bug in short form is 'unexpected behaviour'. And I make any bet, that most - maybe almost anyone - doesn't expect the current behaviour. e.g. I can't understand that a language push me to declare return by reference twice: function &member(..) { ... }; $x= $member(..); THAT IS CRAZY - sorry. 5) I guess that the construct $obj1(..)->member1(..)->member2(..) could than easily be supported. Today I need to write: $obj2= &$obj1->member1(); $obj2->member2(); I believe, that this not working statement in PHP show's that there is something broken internally! (This is bug #4 = buy the way! 6) Shallow copies can be avoided - I have not yet found any computer science specialist you call's shallow copies a good language construct!!!! If you don't make this change fast - you may not be able to change it anymore. Or many existing program's will break!!!! But as as of today, you have just started to introduce the return by reference functionality. Let me just say - beside this object-by-value behaviour I really like PHP - it's a creat server side scripting language. Greetings Heinz -----Original Message----- From: Bug Database [mailto:php-dev@lists.php.net] Sent: Donnerstag, 17. August 2000 14:46 To: Heinz@chanet.de Subject: PHP 4.0 Bug #6193 Updated: new object makes a shallow copy ID: 6193 Updated by: waldschrott Reported By: Heinz@chanet.de Status: Analyzed Bug Type: Feature/Change Request Assigned To: Comments: urgs, that´s a pity - there´s some unexpected behaviour using references, we should document this unless it´s not improved... Full Bug description available at: http://bugs.php.net/?id=6193