Hey internals,
You may remember my RFC about Records (https://wiki.php.net/rfc/records). There
was something intentionally left out, and due to life events, I am quite behind
schedule on this one. BUT, what I left out (and the main reason for the short
syntax) is the ability to have locally scoped records in a class definition.
Example using an anonymous record:
$x = new class {
public record Point(int $x, int $y);
// from inside the class, there is no special scope
public function foo(): Point {
return new Point(1, 1);
}
}
$point = new $x::Point(1, 2);
Anyway, I think I've settled on an implementation that is acceptable, but I
wanted your feedback before moving forward.
Instead of this being limited to Records -- an entirely new type of type and
syntax -- would we rather have short class declarations (similar to the rules
in the Records RFC) and locally scoped classes?
class Outer {
// able to be instantiated from anywhere
public class Inner(int $y);
// a private/protected class can only be instantiated within methods/classes
bound to Outer
protected readonly class ProtectedInner(int $z);
}
Instantiation is done by static access: new Outer::Inner(1), which is currently
a syntax error. Public nested classes may be used as type hints and return
types as well as properties in other classes.
There are quite a few more things left to investigate before updating the RFC
(or drafting a new one), but I am at a crossroads and I wanted to gather
people's feedback first. If this is a big "NO" (or if someone else has started
working on this and I'm just so happening to accidentally step on their toes,
again): I don't want to spend several days/weeks digging into the details for
classes. However, it would probably look something like the above.
Note, this doesn't preclude you from using a longer syntax, if that is your
preference.
class Outer {
public class Inner {
public function __construct(public int $z) {}
}
}
Anyway, I'd love to hear any preferences or thoughts -- strong or otherwise. I
probably won't reply, but I will read everything and take it into consideration
as I continue down this road.
Also, if there is already someone working on this ... please speak up so I
don't get accused of stealing ideas again!
— Rob
