Re: The future of call time pass-as-reference

On Wed, 2002-05-15 at 17:13, Frank wrote: > > After installing PHP 4.2.0 I got the following error-message under a run: > > "Warning: Call-time pass-by-reference has been deprecated - argument passed > by value; If you would like to pass it by reference, modify the declaration > of [runtime function name](). If you would like to enable call-time > pass-by-reference, you can set allow_call_time_pass_reference to true in > your INI file. However, future versions may not support this any longer. " > > This is actually big news as parameter passing is a fundamental issue. What version did you upgrade from? This has been the case for over two years. Here's the actual commit which added this warning: http://cvs.php.net/diff.php/Zend/zend_compile.c?r1=1.85&r2=1.86&ty=h&Horde=f1b8ac02f66b49090920734c03b780c1 ...which is from Dec 15, 1999---5 months before PHP 4.0.0 was released. Chances are you had the error suppressed in php.ini. > Anyway - it seems that I have to choose between either starting to rewrite > quite a lot of code right away or risk being forced to rewrite more later > if I use the quick fix with setting allow_call_time_pass_reference to true. > > Any thoughts? > > Frank Yup. Start changing that code. :) Sorry if this seems overly glib but it's just the way things work. This has been hashed over before--check the list archives. Essentially, the feeling is that references are not what you might expect if you come from a C-like background and the call-time syntax doesn't give you the benefits you might expect. Hope that explains some of it. I believe there is more on the topic on zend.com, too. Cheers, Torben -- Torben Wilson <torben@php.net> http://www.thebuttlesschaps.com http://www.hybrid17.com http://www.inflatableeye.com +1.604.709.0506