Re: proper anonymous classes?

It doesn't have to be? It could just be an inline class expression (without the new keyword) that evaluates to a string, e.g. a machine-generated class-name? I don't think that's what first-class support means? e.g. nothing like constructors in JS or class instances like Dart? This could just be a "cheap hack" with machine-generated class-names, so we can reference anonymous classes by name, the same way we reference classes now. Introducing classes as instances of some kind of "class class" would be a more drastic change, since this would not be compatible with existing string type-hints for class-names. (?) On Wed, Feb 13, 2019 at 9:16 AM Joe Watkins <krakjoe@gmail.com> wrote: > What you describe is first class support for classes, nothing much to do > with anonymous classes. > > On Wed, 13 Feb 2019, 09:01 Rasmus Schultz <rasmus@mindplay.dk wrote: > >> The fact that the anonymous class syntax defines a class *and* immediately >> constructs an instance is quite annoying. >> >> For one, this is quite incompatible with DI containers' ability to resolve >> constructor arguments. >> >> Lets say you DI container can register a named component by merely >> referencing a class that uses constructor injection - so lets say this >> works: >> >> class MyController { >> public function __construct(MyService $service) { >> // ... >> } >> } >> >> $container->register("my-controller", MyController::class); >> >> Now I want to register an anonymous class, for example as part of an >> integration test-suite, which is common enough: >> >> $container->register("my-controller", new class { >> public function __construct(MyService $service) { >> // ... >> } >> }); >> >> This doesn't work, because you're expected to actually pass the >> constructor >> arguments immediately - because you can only define an anonymous class >> while immediately creating an instance. >> >> What I really want is just an anonymous class - not an instance, so: >> >> $container->register("my-controller", class { >> public function __construct(MyService $service) { >> // ... >> } >> }); >> >> The question is, what would a class expression without the new keyword >> evaluate to? >> >> Since we normally reference classes with just a class-name, I guess I'd >> expect a string, like you'd get from the ::class constant. >> >> Any hope for something like that? >> >