Re: [PHP-DEV] Pre-RFC spitball - Namespace Load event

On Fri, Jul 3, 2026, at 7:32 AM, Michael Morris wrote:

> And this applies for use statements as well.  For example, if `use 
> A\foo;` is foo a class? a function, a constant? Who knows, but this is 
> the moment to find out and execute this handler.

It's known because the syntax says what it is.

use Foo\Bar; // Bar is a class, or a namespace prefix.
use function Foo\Bar\baz; // baz is a function.
use const Foo\Bar\Beep; // Beep is a constant.

This feels somewhat similar to Python, where a given module can have an __init__.py file that is automatically loaded the first time the module is referenced.  I'm not sure how well that maps into PHP (see previous module/package/namespace threads), but it's an interesting model to explore for function autoloading.

--Larry Garfield