Fix #124 Require parenthesis around clone()

[mbeccati]

Per request from @Crell on Discord ;-)

Resolves #124

[Crell]

I'm good with this. Waiting a few days for other WG members to comment if desired.

[mbeccati]

@jrfnl I'm not a native speaker, but to me it feels used would be more appropriate than called when referring to a language construct (vs function). Thoughts?

[jrfnl]

@jrfnl I'm not a native speaker, but to me it feels used would be more appropriate than called when referring to a language construct (vs function). Thoughts?

@mbeccati I agree, used reads better.

[jrfnl]

Question for the interpretation by tooling:

The examples have no spacing between the keyword and the open parenthesis and on the inside of the parentheses.

Can we conclude that the rule about this for function/method calls (line 781 - 785) also applies to these language constructs ?

When making a method or function call, there MUST NOT be a space between the
method or function name and the opening parenthesis, there MUST NOT be a space
after the opening parenthesis, and there MUST NOT be a space before the
closing parenthesis. In the argument list, there MUST NOT be a space before
each comma, and there MUST be one space after each comma.

[mbeccati]

@jrfnl How about something along the lines of

Suggested change

	not provided. For example:
	not provided. As such, it follows the same rules as function calls. For example:

[jrfnl]

I'm not sure it needs to be spelled out as this paragraph is within the "function and method call" section anyway, but I just wanted to clarify to avoid ending up with discussions about this in the PHPCS repo later on.

[Crell]

Agreed with @jrfnl about the spacing. Pseudo-function language constructs should always be formatted like functions, without a space.

[mbeccati]

print is not a function but a language construct. Its argument is the expression following the print keyword, and is not delimited by parentheses.

and

Note: Because this is a language construct and not a function, it cannot be called using variable functions, or named arguments.

Yet, it has a return value and disguises as a function.

Should we also globally regulate that language constructs masking as functions should follow the same rules as functions?

[Crell]

I'm tempted to say yes, but that would also mean always requiring print have parens, which I don't think anyone does currently. So mandating that globally wouldn't be advisable.

[jrfnl]

I'm tempted to say yes, but that would also mean always requiring print have parens, which I don't think anyone does currently. So mandating that globally wouldn't be advisable.

Print is a "pure" language construct, so the parentheses have no function, other than to group whatever is being printed.
Exit/die/clone have over the last few years been changed to "language construct masking as functions" (which allows for fully qualified use, named arguments etc).

To me, there is a difference, though I can imagine not everyone can see that difference or is aware of it.

[Crell]

Hm. How do we define "language construct cosplaying a function" in the spec in a way that is clear to people?

[mbeccati]

Function-like language constructs, such as...

[Crell]

Will the casual PHP reader understand that exit() is a function-like language construct but print() is not? Both permit parentheses.

[jrfnl]

print allows parentheses in the same way as return or include allow parentheses. The parentheses do not have a function for the construct, they only group whatever comes after.

Maybe it should be something to be clarified/defined in section 2 ? And then other sections can refer to that definition ?

[mbeccati]

With print, I'm a bit confused.

How do you suggest we treat the following?

$i = print("foo");

Likewise:

if (include("lib.php")) {
    ...
}

[KorvinSzanto]

This feels a bit like scope creep to me. Can't we just add clone to the SHOULD list directly above that includes exit and die and work on a more general rule for language constructs in a separate issue? I'd argue we could get by with clone parenthesis being a SHOULD for now.