Hey all, I know that 6.0 was originally supposed to be the unicode conversion of the engine. However it appears that all progress on that has stopped for quite some time.
So, I was curious if we could start a conversation around what 6.0 would look like if we didn't go the unicode route. What would be the major changes that we'd base it on. Here are a few of the ideas that have been floating around in my head. 1. Change the error handling system from the current E_* system to typed exceptions for everything but advisory errors (E_STRICT, E_NOTICE, E_DEPRECATED). Why? Because the current error system encourages ignoring or not checking what the error was, and it makes defensive programming quite difficult. This is arguable and preference for sure, but it's a major change that could have large benefits. 2. Make namespaces first-class meta-objects. That way, you could have namespace private and protected classes, functions, variables, etc. This would allow for better scoping of modules... 3. Make all zval types pseudo-objects. Basically enabling something akin to auto-boxing allowing a significant amount of the standard library to be eventually deprecated in favor of acting on methods (not initially, but opens the door). 4. Rewrite the entire parser completely. I keep hearing about how bad PHP's parser is, and how it's growing out of control. Perhaps this is a good time to rewrite it (perhaps changing semantics slightly) to be better adapted towards future changes... I'm not saying all of them are solid. I'm not saying any of them are solid. But hopefully this can spark a discussion around it... Thoughts? Anthony
