rfc:println

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rfc:println [2021/03/13 19:16] tandrerfc:println [2021/03/15 13:26] (current) tandre
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   * Date: 2021-03-13   * Date: 2021-03-13
   * Author: Tyson Andre   * Author: Tyson Andre
-  * Status: Draft+  * Status: Withdrawn
   * First Published at: http://wiki.php.net/rfc/println   * First Published at: http://wiki.php.net/rfc/println
 +  * Implementation: https://github.com/php/php-src/pull/6639
  
 ===== Introduction ===== ===== Introduction =====
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 The behavior is equivalent to the following polyfill but expected to be more efficient due to avoiding concatenation. The behavior is equivalent to the following polyfill but expected to be more efficient due to avoiding concatenation.
  
-Similarly to https://www.php.net/manual/en/function.printf.php#refsect1-function.printf-returnvalues - this returns the number of bytes that were **successfully** output to stdout to be consistent with ''printf''. In the typical case where there was no output error, this returns ''strlen($data) + 1''. (E.g. printf and println may fail if php's standard output was redirected to a file on a disk that filled up)+Similarly to https://www.php.net/manual/en/function.printf.php#refsect1-function.printf-returnvalues - this returns the number of bytes that were **successfully** output to stdout (to be consistent with ''printf''). In the typical case where there was no output error, this returns ''strlen($data) + 1''. (E.g. printf and println may fail if php's standard output was redirected to a file on a disk that filled up)
  
  
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 Within HTML, there are elements such as ''<pre>'', ''<textarea>'', ''<script>'', etc. where newlines are needed and used instead of ''<br>'' Within HTML, there are elements such as ''<pre>'', ''<textarea>'', ''<script>'', etc. where newlines are needed and used instead of ''<br>''
  
-===== Proposed Voting Choices ===== +==== Choice of println for the name ====
-Yes/No, requiring 2/3 majority.+
  
-===== References ===== +Naming was discussed in a different user's proposal to add a "puts" function that was never brought to a vote. https://github.com/php/php-src/pull/3918#issuecomment-502241701
-https://externals.io/message/104545 "print with newline"+
  
-===== Rejected Features =====+<blockquote> 
 +nikic commented on 14 Jun 2019
  
-==== Alternate names ====+> Inspiration from Rust: https://doc.rust-lang.org/std/macro.println.html
  
-''println'' was deliberately chosen over ''puts'' - the name ''puts'' could be argued to be unfamiliar to +Speaking of ... I think it would make a lot more sense to call this function println rather than puts. The fact that puts() is like print but with a newline will not be obvious to anyone without a C background. (Or even to someone with a C background for that matter, I haven't ever used this function and wouldn't know that it adds a newline.) 
-anyone without a C background. Several new languages such as golang/rust (and older languages like java(different semantics)) have gone with ''println'' instead.+</blockquote> 
 + 
 +As stated in that comment, new languages such as golang/rust (and older languages like java(different semantics)) have gone with ''println'' instead.
 Additionally, the fact that ''puts'' would append newlines and ''fputs'' [[https://www.php.net/fputs|does not]] (exactly the same as it does in C) is something that I'd expect to be a source of confusion if the name ''puts'' was used. Additionally, the fact that ''puts'' would append newlines and ''fputs'' [[https://www.php.net/fputs|does not]] (exactly the same as it does in C) is something that I'd expect to be a source of confusion if the name ''puts'' was used.
  
 (e.g. changing ''puts("test")'' to ''fputs(STDERR, "test")'' would unexpectedly not print a terminating newline to STDERR (''fputs'' is an alias of ''fwrite'')) (e.g. changing ''puts("test")'' to ''fputs(STDERR, "test")'' would unexpectedly not print a terminating newline to STDERR (''fputs'' is an alias of ''fwrite''))
 +
 +==== Choice of Unix newline(\n) ====
 +
 +Some programming languages such as Java use a platform-specific or configurable newline https://docs.oracle.com/javase/6/docs/api/java/io/PrintStream.html#println%28%29
 +Others, such as rust and golang, always use a unix newline.
 +
 +There have been some comments in favor of Unix newlines, and other comments in favor of PHP_EOL or configurable settings - e.g. https://externals.io/message/104545
 +
 +My reasons for unconditionally choosing the Unix newline are documented in the section [[#the_unix_newline_is_always_used|The Unix Newline is always used]].
 +
 +==== Should this be a language construct instead ====
 +
 +
 +https://github.com/php/php-src/pull/3918#issuecomment-502012735
 +
 +<blockquote>
 +Should't this be a language construct instead of a function, so it can be used without parenthesis just like echo or print?
 +
 +It would feel a little weird being able to do:
 +
 +<code php>
 +echo 'hello world';
 +print 'hello world';
 +</code>
 +... but not:
 +
 +<code php>
 +puts 'hello world';
 +</code>
 +</blockquote>
 +
 +Adding this as a language construct (i.e. new statement type) is something I'd expect to be contentious, and this is deliberately NOT done. Adding a new keyword would
 +
 +  - Cause a larger BC break.
 +  - Increase the complexity of the language specification and make the language a bit harder to learn; I'd prefer simplicity by using an ordinary global function in this case.
 +  - Be impossible to polyfill (when brackets weren't added) for older php versions.
 +
 +==== PHP already has a lot of ways to print a string ====
 +
 +https://externals.io/message/113504#113530
 +
 +<blockquote>
 +This isn't solving any problem that anyone is actually having.
 +Yes, that includes you. You're not having this problem because it doesn't
 +exist.
 +
 +We already have twice as many ways to output a string as any language needs
 +and you want to add another because you'd rather type "LN" than "\N" ?
 +Hard, negative ten thousand no on this.
 +This is genuinely absurd.
 +</blockquote>
 +
 +===== Proposed Voting Choices =====
 +Yes/No, requiring a 2/3 majority.
 +
 +===== References =====
 +https://externals.io/message/104545 "print with newline"
 +
 +https://github.com/php/php-src/pull/3918 "ext/standard/basic_functions.c: add puts function" has discussion on a similar proposal by a different author. My RFC uses ''\n'', while the other author's RFC proposed ''PHP_EOL''.
rfc/println.1615662979.txt.gz · Last modified: 2021/03/13 19:16 by tandre