Proposal: namespace the SPL

Hello, everyone, There has been a lot of disagreement about namespacing, and people seem to have different viewpoints. I am not sure how to reconcile this broader discussion. However, there are certain names in the global namespace which I am hopeful we can revolve. For instance, SplObserver, SplQueue, SplFixedArray, etc all follow the Spl prefix. There is already an established "namespace" for these names. So here is my limited proposal: 1. We create names in the Spl namespace that are aliases to their equivalent types with the Spl prefix: Spl\FixedArray -> SplFixedArray Spl\Queue -> SplQueue a. The new names are the aliases so any code which uses get_class($obj) will not have the name change on them in a minor release (8.1). b. We may switch the direction of this alias in 9.0. 2. Any new types going into ext/spl use the Spl namespace. New types added to ext/spl should be either related to data structures or iterators, which is the bulk of what the SPL is. a. This rule is to help prevent the SPL from becoming the dumping grounds for new types. 3. We leave functions alone for now. Let me know what you think. I am hopeful this approach will work because: 1. It is focused on a specific area which already has an established "namespace", but in name-only (not technically). 2. It does not try to solve the larger problem, which has a lot of disagreement. 3. I will be proposing new types for ext/spl soon (ReverseIterator and an array iterator that is more efficient than \ArrayIterator), and Tyson Andre has already proposed CachedIterable and company which is in ext/spl, so this space has active development. Thank you for your time.