Re: Annotation PHP 7

> On 4 Nov 2014, at 10:54, Benjamin Eberlei <kontakt@beberlei.de> wrote: > > I agree with Stas that a much simpler approach is probably realistic. > > beginning pure speculation here, i see a short array like syntax like: > > [foo="bar", bar="baz", baz=["key": "value"]] > function annotated_fn() {} > > Maybe even exactly short array syntax: > > ["foo"="bar", "bar"="baz", > "baz"=["key": "value"]] > function annotated_fn() {} > > Then $reflectionFunction->getAnnotations() returns an array. Various > PHP/Userland libraries and frameworks can then stick whatever symantic on > top that they want. The approach for annotations that I like best would actually be not annotations, but Python-style decorators. They’re very simple, but very powerful. They would allow you to do annotations, but also add extra functionality to functions. In Python, a decorator is a function (or callable object), and you use one like this: @some_decorator(foo, bar) def myfunc(): # function source code here This is actually syntactic sugar for the following: def myfunc(): # function source code here myfunc = some_decorator(myfunc, foo, bar) Which would be equivalent to the following PHP code: $myfunc = function myfunc() { # function source code here }; $myfunc = some_decorator($myfunc, foo, bar); Basically, Python decorators allow you to explicitly have a function modify a new function before it’s declared. This is pretty useful: If your decorator does nothing, it’s just an annotation. But you can also use it to add functionality. For example, you might make a decorator that does something before and after a function runs. -- Andrea Faulds http://ajf.me/