Re: Is there an RFC/discussion for ::class being a specific type?

Hi Dusk, Perhaps, you misunderstood me. Take a look at the documentation https://www.php.net/manual/en/language.oop5.basic.php#language.oop5.basic.class.class ::class is just a compile time transformation. It will give you the fully qualified name of *something* as a string literal. The only exception to this is when using ::class on objects, as this is a runtime transformation, and when using with keyword static. When ::class is used with a class name, it will give you the name of that class as a string. When used with a name of a function, it will give you the name of that function as a string. When used with a string, it will give you that string as a string. See this example https://3v4l.org/EKnEd The fact that this gives you a callable is just coincidental with all strings being callable in PHP. The reason why it works right now is because a string can represent a name of a class, interface, trait or function. If we were to replace the transformation with something else, like it is proposed here, we would have to ensure that it is as versatile as a plain string. Otherwise we would be losing functionality.