Re: Deprecation ideas for PHP 8

On Tue, Jan 22, 2019 at 1:35 PM Girgias <george.banyard@gmail.com> wrote: > > Greetings PHP internals, > After skimming through the PHP documentation, I came up with a list of > functions which seem > reasonable to deprecate as of PHP 8 and I would like to gather some > opinions from Internals. > If this seems like it's too early or should be in an RFC draft please let > me know and in case it > needs an RFC may I have Karma to do so. > Without further ado here is the list I compiled: > > PHP Info/Option functions: > > - php_sapi_name (use PHP_SAPI constant) > - phpversion (use PHP_VERSION constant) > - php_uname (use PHP_OS constant) > > Classes/Objects functions: > > - is_a (use instanceof operator) > - is_subclass_of (not exactly what it's purpose is but the instanceof > operator SHOULD be a valid equivalence with another condition if the same > class must not be used) > > Function handling functions: > > - call_user_func (invoke directly) > - call_user_func_array (arguments can be provided with the splat > operator (...) as of PHP 5.6 > - forward_static_call (same reason as call_user_func) > - forward_static_cal_array (same reason as call_user_func_array) > - func_get_arg (seems unnecessary as of PHP 5.6 with variadic functions > (splat operator)) > - func_get_args (same reason as func_get_arg) > - func_num_args (same reason as func_get_arg) > > Variable handling functions: > Aliases: > > - is_double > - is_integer > - is_long > - is_real (already in the deprecation draft for PHP 7.4) > > Setting var type (can use variable casting nowadays): > > - boolval > - doubleval > - floatval > - intval (for arbitrary base change there exists the math function > base_convert) > - settype > - strval > - gettype (more on this later [1]) > > String functions aliases: > > - chop (alias of rtrim) > - join (alias of implode) > - strchr (alias of strstr) > > Maths functions aliases: > > - getrandmax > - rand (use mt_rand instead) > - srand (alias of mt_srand as of PHP 7.1) > > Filesystem aliases: > > - diskfreespace — Alias of disk_free_space > - fputs — Alias of fwrite > - is_writeable — Alias of is_writable > - set_file_buffer — Alias of stream_set_write_buffer > > Old signatures: > > - implode (historical signature) > > Controversial idea: > > - deprecate array function creation (array()) > > > [1] About gettype: > The gettype function is really convenient as it can easily provide the type > of a variable without > needed to use a bunch of conditional checks, it can even as of PHP 7.2 > signal if a resource > has been closed. > However, it still returns "double" for a float due to historical reasons > and it seems quite > complicated to change how it operates currently. > I have thought of two possible ideas which would allow PHP to return float > instead of double: > > First, create a new reflection class ReflectionVar: > This feels even to me like a bit of an overkill more so that something > simple (a unique function > call) would require an object instantiation. But it can allow some > extensions such as the > Reflection for Reference RFC proposed by nikic (c.f. > https://wiki.php.net/rfc/reference_reflection) > > Second, create a new function get_var_type($mixed): > This would behave exactly the same as the current implementation with the > one difference that > it would return 'float' instead of 'double'. This new function name would > be more consistent with how the other functions are named (namely > get_resource_type). > This implementation has the benefit of keeping it simple but will probably > duplicate code within the engine. > > > Just to remind these are only ideas and feedback is wholeheartedly > welcomed. I also probably > missed some more functions which could be deprecated as of PHP 8 but I feel > this covers > already a large portion. > > > Best regards > > George P. Banyard I see no reason to get rid of aliases, which comprises most of your list.