Re: RFC: spl_autoload_register() should provide kind of entity to load

Georges, On Sat, Apr 18, 2015 at 10:24 AM, georges <geolim4@gmail.com> wrote: > Hi php internals, > > Currently spl_autoload_register() pass the name of the class entity to the > first *Callable* argument, but there is now way (as i far i know) to know > what kind of entity we're looking for. > -Class ? > -Interface ? > -Trait? > > > A second argument should be added to the *Callable* function describing > what kind of entity we're looking for. > > Example: > > <?php > > // function __autoload($class) { > // include 'classes/' . $class . '.class.php'; > // } > > function my_autoloader($entity, $kind = "class") { > // Kind would be: class/interface/trait > include $kind . '/' . $entity . ".{$kind}.php"; > } > > spl_autoload_register('my_autoloader'); > > // Or, using an anonymous function as of PHP 5.3.0 > spl_autoload_register(function ($entity, $kind = "class") { > // Kind would be: class/interface/trait > include $kind . '/' . $entity . ".{$kind}.php"; > }); > > ?> > > > In fact i think currently that Autoload is too much "class oriented" as per > reading php docs, whereas that php currently allow the autoload of many > entities. It can really confuse probies php developers :( > > *Pros*: > > - -Avoid multiple else if() for testing an existing file to load the > entity. > - -As we now know the type of entity to load, it help reduce I/O > activity, then reduce timespend. > - -Clarify the code: We now what the autoloader will load > - -Keep the BC safe > > > *Cons*: > > - -None > This won't work out of the box due to spl_autoload(). If you use that default autoloader (by calling spl_autoload_register()), it will accept an optional second argument as the list of file extensions. Which means that having spl_autoload_register() pass a second argument to autoloaders will break the existing core autoloader. Changing the core autoloader is also not really possible due to BC considerations. So technically, without introducing a new autoload API, this won't really be possible. As far as the feature, I would question why you need to distinguish the file by the type. The names are in the same symbol table, so you couldn't possibly have a collision. From there, is the identification of the type of the definition in the filename that important? Isn't that just another form of Hungarian Notation? Anthony