Re: [RFC] Property write visibility

On 29-06-2020 11:41, André Rømcke wrote: > Good morning Internals, > > I'd like to start discussion on a new RFC proposing a way to be able to > (optionally) specify property > write visibility, separate from read: > > https://wiki.php.net/rfc/property_write_visibility Perhaps another option could be to use attributes: <<ReadOnly>> public int $id; Assuming named arguments get accepted as well, we could use optional arguments to specify special behavior by writing: <<ReadOnly(protected: True)>> public int $id; These optional arguments could also be introduced later using a followup RFC, after introducing a basic ReadOnly attribute. This attribute-based approach could be extended later to implement property accessors. That would provide property accessors similar to how it is done in Python: <<Property>> public function someValue(): int { return $this->someValue; } which could then be accessed as: $instance->someValue The above accessor method would be the equivalent of: <<ReadOnly>> public int $someValue; That makes the ReadOnly attribute a short hand for the Property attribute. This short hand is something that Python does not have, by the way. Using accessor attributes to create a writable property could look like this: <<PropertySetter>> public function someValue(int $newValue) { $this->someValue = $newValue; } Making the property writable only in the protected or private scope could be done by using the existing mechanism of declaring the accessor method as protected or private. So perhaps an attribute-based approach provides a nice alternative path for gradually improving object ergonomics. Regards, Dik Takken