Re: [PHP-PEAR] RFC on merge of PHPLib and Pear

Hi,

* Stig Sæther Bakken wrote:
> > > Your argument isn't exactly convincing. Put it this way: I could always 
> > > subclass PEAR's DB_mysql if I wanted to, and supply the parameters in the 
> > > class. Could I use a config file without re-writing phplib's DB_sql, or setting 
> > > the parameters manually after instantiating the object (ugly)? No.

Chuck, of course you can set the parameters manually after
instantiating the object (seems you really haven't dealed
with PHPLIB seriously?):

<?php
  $db = new DB_Sql;
  $db->Host = "localhost";
  $db->Database = "redsys";
  $db->Passwort = "";
  $db->User = "root";

  $db->query("select * from seite");
  while ($db->next_record()) {
    print "ID: ".$db->f("sid")."<br>\n";
  }
?>

This can be a disandvantage if you remind the example with the
nested whiles:

$db = new DB_Sql;
$db1 = new DB_Sql;

Now you have to objects where you have to give _twice_ the
same config parameters:

$db->Host = "localhost";
$db1->Host = "localhost";

... instead of the centralized way of local.inc. (One could
also say, local.inc _is_ the config file of the PHPLIB classes.)
 
But, and now we come to Stig:

> Subclassing limits your options to just subclassing.  In Chuck's
> DB_mysql example, runtime configuration gives you one more option.

See above, you have runtime configuration. But, repeating again,
PHPLIB's nature is subclassing. If you want config files with
$PARAMS["db_host"] = "localhost", then use $db->Host = $PARAMS["db_host"]
from the above example or use another system. Chuck's argumentation
seems to me a little bit weird: if a class foobar only supports
an API with a defined way of how to configure it, you can't say
"But I want that in _my_ config way!". Would be the same as if I
would write "Hey, I don't want to give my datas over the XMLRPC
interface to this class, I want that the class pulls the datas
from outside my car!".

-- 
Björn Schotte                                      [email protected]
http://rent-a-phpwizard.de/                   [email protected]

Software dev advocate: http://www.advogato.org/person/baerli/