Re: [RFC] Pure-code source files via the .phpc extension

> Am 17.06.2026 um 02:58 schrieb Michael Morris <tendoaki@gmail.com>: > > > > On Tue, Jun 16, 2026 at 7:02 PM Sarina Corrigan <sarina.corrigan@gmail.com > <mailto:sarina.corrigan@gmail.com>> wrote: >> >> >> On Tue, Jun 16, 2026, 18:22 Michael Morris <tendoaki@gmail.com >> <mailto:tendoaki@gmail.com>> wrote: >>> Here's a thought - Instead of .phpc as an extension, why not <?phpc or even >>> <?psf (PHP source file). Explicitly tell the engine "nothing should be before this other >>> than a shebang, no further tags will be in this file. >>> >>> That also solves the inadverted echo problem and would be fully BC. >>> >>> Not convinced it would be useful, but it has fewer problems. >> >> >> I could actually get behind an alternative tag that reads everything as PHP. It would at >> least solve the problem of accidental output prior to the opening tag, though I'm not sure how >> big of a problem that really is. Could we expect any performance benefits from not having to parse >> for any closing tags? I imagine it would be minuscule if anything > > Thinking on this a bit more, if it is an independent tag it could hold directives on how the > file should be parsed. > > <?psf strict ?> Parse the file with strict mode. Here the closing tag means we're > done passing directives, no further tags will be allowed in the file and the parser will remain in > PHP mode for this file. > > <?psf new_scope ?> Create a new scope - that is no variables, symbols or autoloaders will > be shared with the file that included this one. This is an alternate way to do containers aside from > creating a new function. > > Thoughts? Hm my core idea was, to get PHP a bit more like C#, Python and so on - they also don’t have a start -/ end tags But as a first goal, your idea seems logical Hendrik