Re: Braceless Syntax extended to functions and classes (bugs #47416 and 24100)

On Wed, Jun 27, 2012 at 11:06 AM, Michael Morris <dmgx.michael@gmail.com>wrote: > PHP has a braceless syntax stretching back to its roots as a template > language. Frameworks which make use of php templating use these tags > quite frequently since it's harder to overlook an endif statement in a > sea of HTML tags than a brace. But what of endfunction? > > I did some look ups and found in the archive two of the most unhelpful > - bordering on rude - comments I've seen on the bug database. > > [2003-06-09 13:40 UTC] derick@php.net > The "endif;" stuff is old > legacy syntax and is definitely not the recommended way of doing > things. For my part if can be removed for PHP 5... anyway, definitely > not something we will add. > [2009-02-17 15:41 UTC] johannes@php.net > Derick'S response to #24100 > is still valid. We still prefer the {} syntax. > > > So sure "we" (whoever we is) prefer braces. I prefer them in straight > code contexts - I don't want to work with them in HTML templates. > This said, the need to do a function or class closure inside a > template is rare, bordering on non-existent. > > But for functions there is one case - anonymous functions - > specifically for recursion. Here's a live example that renders a > nested list. > > <?php > $render = function( $categories ) use (&$render) { > ob_start() ?> > <ul style="padding-left: 1em;"> > <?php foreach ($categories as $category): ?> > <li><?= $category['name'] ?> > <?php if (count($category['children']) > 0): > echo $render( $category['children'] > ); > endif ?> > <?php endforeach ?> > </li> > </ul> > <?php return ob_get_clean(); > } > ?> > > This would be ever so slightly easier to read with endfunction. > > <?php > $render = function( $categories ) use (&$render): > ob_start() ?> > <ul style="padding-left: 1em;"> > <?php foreach ($categories as $category): ?> > <li><?= $category['name'] ?> > <?php if (count($category['children']) > 0): > echo $render( $category['children'] > ); > endif ?> > <?php endforeach ?> > </li> > </ul> > <?php return ob_get_clean(); > endfunction > ?> > > I'm not going to raise too much of a fuss over it. At the end of the > day, it's a small change. But the elitist, dismissive comments to the > idea from the team at the time were unwarranted. > > Also, I have to wonder if the position on this has changed any at all? > Particularly since <?= has been turned on at all times as of PHP 5.4. > > -- > PHP Internals - PHP Runtime Development Mailing List > To unsubscribe, visit: http://www.php.net/unsub.php > > If those are the most unhelpful comments you've seen in the bug database, you haven't been looking hard enough :) This does seem like an improvement to readability, but in an edge case that I would try to avoid. Defining functions in templates just seems wrong. I know your example isn't meant to be taken as the only archtype, but an example of how I would deal with recursion: <ul style="padding-left: 1em;"> <?php foreach ($categories as $category): ?> <li><?= $category['name'] ?> <?php if (count($category['children']) > 0): $tmp = $categories; $categories = $category['children']; include "renderCategories.php" $categories = $tmp; endif ?> <?php endforeach ?> </li> </ul> Not sure how great an idea doing a recursive include on a template would be, but I also prefer using a templating engine, so I may be biased to work in a different way. Thanks, John