Re: [RFC] Enumerations

Dec 4, 2020 7:37:51 PM Paul Crovella <paul.crovella@gmail.com>: > On Fri, Dec 4, 2020 at 3:25 PM Larry Garfield <larry@garfieldtech.com> wrote: >> >> Greetings, denizens of Internals! >> >> Ilija Tovilo and I have been working for the last few months on adding support for >> enumerations and algebraic data types to PHP.  This is a not-small task, so we've broken it up >> into several stages.  The first stage, unit enumerations, are just about ready for public review >> and discussion. >> >> The overarching plan (for context, NOT the thing to comment on right now) is here: >> https://wiki.php.net/rfc/adts >> >> The first step, for unit enumerations, is here: >> >> https://wiki.php.net/rfc/enumerations >> >> There's still a few bits we're sorting out and the implementation is mostly done, >> but not 100% complete.  Still, it's far enough along to start a discussion on and get broader >> feedback on the outstanding nits. >> >> I should note that while the design has been collaborative, credit for the implementation >> goes entirely to Ilija.  Blame for any typos in the RFC itself go entirely to me. >> >> *dons flame-retardant suit* >> >> -- >> Larry Garfield >> larry@garfieldtech.com > > I'd like to see the specific reasons for the restrictions listed in > Comparison to objects[1]. In general if something's value is even > debatable then the default position should be to remain consistent > with the rest of the language. It should take a strong argument to > introduce any artificial limitation and it's useful to have that in > the RFC. > > [1] https://wiki.php.net/rfc/enumerations#comparison_to_objects > The reasoning general comes down to one of 2 things: * they involve state, and enum cases have no state. They may get reintroduced with tagged unions, but for now methods relating to state would just be confusing. * we couldn't figure out what possible use they'd have (like static methods on cases, which without data are exactly the same as normal methods.) --Larry Garfield