Hi,

Sorry to bring that up again!

Quick summary for people that didn't follow it: LSB was implemented, and it was decided that "explicit calls" ( ClassName::method() ) wouldn't pass the caller info if no fallbacks occured. Some people that were looking forward to having LSB were disappointed as it meant that it wouldn't be possible to sanely overwrite a static method, without loosing info on the caller.

Quick POC: class A { public static function test() { echo get_called_class(); }} class B extends A { public static function test() { echo get_called_class(); parent::test(); } class C extends B; C::test(); // will output CA

To be able to pass information, it was decided to implement a call_user_func-like function that passed the caller info: forward_static_call(_array).

Back then, I was for that solution, but with some time I realized that it would probably be one of those decisions that would bite us back afterward.

To sum up key points about each possibilities:

1) forward_static_call + no need to affect the engine - slow, painful

2) parent:: carries the info while ParentClassName:: doesn't + convenient + no functionnality lost - introduces a difference between parent:: and classname::, but restricted to LSB so no BC break

It really seems like (2) is the most PHP way of doing things, while (1) is more of a hack that we will regret later. The only problem about (2) is that difference, but I really feel (and experienced in the multiple help channels that I'm in) that people already see (wrongly for now) classname:: and parent:: as slightly different. So introducing it as of 5_3 wouldn't be too much of a shock. The point is that: people who uses LSB will be aware of that difference and will use parent:: vs classname:: carefully, while others will be able to ignore it

So, I really would like to revert that foward_static_call stuff and implement the parent:: patch instead, while it's still possible.

thoughts?

Men never do evil so completely and cheerfully as when they do it from a religious conviction. -- Pascal