Re: RFC Proposal - static modifier for classes

> On 24 Nov 2023, at 01:09, Rowan Tommins <rowan.collins@gmail.com> wrote: > > On Thu, 23 Nov 2023 at 14:20, Stephen Reay <php-lists@koalephant.com> wrote: > >> >> Out of the box, with no package manager or module loader or anything, you >> can do as little as call spl_autoload_register with no >> arguments, and >> have working class autoloading. >> > > > Sure, it's just about possible that you could paste that one line into each > of your PHP files, and they'd all pick up the right classes. But it's more > likely that you have some shared include called "startup.php", > "boostrap.php", "header.php", etc, which has that line plus a bunch of > other setup. So, the argument goes that adding a line "require > 'namespace_foo_functions.php';" to that shared include isn't that big a > problem. > > (If it happens you are using Composer, the files and config are listed in a > JSON file rather than a PHP one, and Composer generates the shared include, > but the logic's basically the same.) > > The strongest counter-argument, I think, is that it *scales* badly: once > you have more than a handful of such include files, an autoloader solution > becomes more attractive than listing all the files. > I think attractive is the wrong word here, but yes in general the issue is that it becomes a developer overhead as the number and location of files increases, particularly if you want to keep the files organised in the filesystem in a similar fashion to classes (i.e. namespaces mapping to directory names). > However, in itself that's not an argument for static classes; it's an > argument for function autoloading; the argument for static classes needs to > be either: > > - "admit it, we're never going to get function autoloading"; > - or "I'd want this even if we had function autoloading" (in which case the > discussion of require vs autoloading becomes irrelevant). > I couldn't agree more - like I said at the start: I have no dog in this particular race about static classes, my only concern is the continued use of Composer as a flimsy argument about why features aren't required. Cheers Stephen > Regards, > -- > Rowan Tommins > [IMSoP]