Re: Proposal for PHP 7 : case-sensitive symbols

On Sat, Dec 20, 2014 at 11:01:23PM +0100, F & N Laupretre wrote: > Hi, > > > > I don't know if this was discussed before. So, tell me what you think before > I write an RFC. > > > > I would like to propose that namespaces, functions, and classes become > case-sensitive (constants are already case-sensitive). Actually, I never > understood why they are case-insensitive. Even if the performance gain is > negligible, I think it could be the right time to question this. Variables are also case sensitive. Identifiers can contain a-zA-Z0-9_ + where top bit is set. Where an identifier is a function name or class name comparison is in a case insensitive manner ... but only for ASCII ... using tolower_map in zend_operators.c This means that those who write function (etc) names in some encoding that is more than US ASCII find that case comparison is done in a case sensitive manner - at least for those parts of identifiers that are written in characters that have the top bit set. Fixing this would require a lot of work as well as some way of determining what character encoding the source file was written in ... different includes might have different encodings. We recently talked about a way of specifying source file encoding and decided that it was not something to look at now (IIRC). Making namespaces, function & classes case sensitive makes PHP consistent to everyone - not just us 'US ASCII chauvinists' -- it is also the simplest approach. It is a BC break; one which, unfortunately, cannot be found at compile time. However: code, when fixed (ie consistent case spelling), will continue to work with current PHP implementations. Although many do try to write these identifiers in a case consistent manner it will cause problems, however I would suggest that it would be worth doing. -- Alain Williams Linux/GNU Consultant - Mail systems, Web sites, Networking, Programmer, IT Lecturer. +44 (0) 787 668 0256 http://www.phcomp.co.uk/ Parliament Hill Computers Ltd. Registration Information: http://www.phcomp.co.uk/contact.php #include <std_disclaimer.h>