ID:          49987
 Updated by:  [email protected]
 Reported By: queenzeal at gmail dot com
 Status:      Bogus
 Bug Type:    Feature/Change Request
 PHP Version: 5.3.0
 New Comment:

Locking down __toString won#t bring any benefit, just an artificial
barrier. Locking down __clone prevents errors. (oh and there are __call,
__get, __set, __callStatic which can also called directly)


Previous Comments:
------------------------------------------------------------------------

[2009-10-24 23:29:44] queenzeal at gmail dot com

You say calling __clone() directly "won\'t be the usual aim".  Is
calling __toString() the "usual aim"?  If it were, than what's the point
of having it be a magic function, anyway?  Because I thought the point
was to make it so you can do echo $a; instead of echo $a->__toString(),
but maybe I misunderstood.

And sure, calling __toString() "is fine to work on the $obj instance",
but that doesn't do anything to address my post.  Besides, I acknowledge
that that *works* in my original post - I'm just suggesting that it
maybe shouldn't - that it ought to behave *consistently* with __clone().
 If that means __toString() can't be called directly or __clone() can be
called directly, I don't really care, but I do believe they ought to be
consistent.

You say "this is not a bug".  Even I acknowledge as much.  That's why I
put it in the "Feature/Change Request" category.  If you're going to
close *every* "Feature/Change Request", how about you just remove that
option from the drop down menu *entirely*.  Certainly that seems
preferable to closing reports that, at best, just rehash what the
submitter said in their submission.

------------------------------------------------------------------------

[2009-10-24 22:26:25] [email protected]

Thank you for taking the time to write to us, but this is not
a bug. Please double-check the documentation available at
http://www.php.net/manual/ and the instructions on how to report
a bug at http://bugs.php.net/how-to-report.php

Calling $obj->__clone(); would work on the $obj instance which won\'t
be the usual aim. Calling $obj->__toString() is fine to work on the $obj
instance.

------------------------------------------------------------------------

[2009-10-24 20:43:03] queenzeal at gmail dot com

Description:
------------
__toString() can be called directly but __clone() cannot.  It seems
like this behavior ought to be consistent.  Either both can be called
directly or neither can be called directly.

__clone()'s current behavior is documented in
<http://php.net/language.oop5.cloning> with the following:

"An object's __clone() method cannot be called directly."

The only reason I can figure for that is that without it, it'd be
possible to clone a cloned object redundantly. eg. $a = clone
$b->__clone().  That said, it seems to me like this can be done,
already, with $a = clone clone $b, so that seems like a non-issue.

Reproduce code:
---------------
class a
{
    function __toString() {
        return 'a';
    }

    function __clone() {
        return this;
    }
}

$a = new a();

echo "$a\r\n";
echo $a->__toString() . "\r\n";

$b = clone $a;
$b = $a->__clone();

Expected result:
----------------
a
a

Actual result:
--------------
Fatal error: Cannot call __clone() method on objects - use 'clone $obj'
instead
in C:\php\test.php on line 20


------------------------------------------------------------------------


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