[PHP-BUG] Req #75023 [NEW]: File Private Visibility Type

From:             php at haravikk dot me
Operating system: 
PHP version:      Next Major Version
Package:          PHP Language Specification
Bug Type:         Feature/Change Request
Bug description:File Private Visibility Type

Description:
------------
While a lot of classes written for PHP tend towards one class per file,
it is often still useful to keep supporting classes within the same
file.

For example, say I have an abstract type `Object`, with two concrete
variations; `Object_Wrapper` and `Object_Instance`. If these are only
obtained through static methods on `Object`, then there is no need to
separate these out into their own files, as they should never be called
for directly (i.e- all interaction occurs via `Object`).

However, because of PHP's visibility model, interaction between these
types may still require public methods that the developer doesn't
actually want to be public.

What is really needed is the ability to specify a file-private
visibility type, making a method/property/constant visible only to other
code/types from the same file. In the example code below, both
`Object_Wrapper` and `Object_Instance` have public constructors, but
shouldn't really need to, i.e- it would be preferable if these were
limited to the same file only, to prevent accidental creation of one of
these directly, rather than through `Object` indirectly as designed.

Test script:
---------------
<?php

abstract class Object {
    public static function create() { return new Object_Wrapper(new
Object_Instance()); }
}

/** Wraps some useful functionality around an Object_Instance, e.g- if
the instance provides some baseline functionality, with wrappers
providing more specifics. */
class Object_Wrapper extends Object {
    private $object;
    /** @internal */
    function __construct(Object_Instance $object) { $this->object =
$object; }
}

class Object_Instance extends Object {
    /** @internal */
    function __construct() { /* Object is pretty useless right now */ }
}


-- 
Edit bug report at https://bugs.php.net/bug.php?id=75023&edit=1
-- 
Try a snapshot (PHP 5.4):   https://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=75023&r=trysnapshot54
Try a snapshot (PHP 5.5):   https://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=75023&r=trysnapshot55
Try a snapshot (trunk):     https://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=75023&r=trysnapshottrunk
Fixed in SVN:               https://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=75023&r=fixed
Fixed in release:           https://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=75023&r=alreadyfixed
Need backtrace:             https://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=75023&r=needtrace
Need Reproduce Script:      https://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=75023&r=needscript
Try newer version:          https://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=75023&r=oldversion
Not developer issue:        https://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=75023&r=support
Expected behavior:          https://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=75023&r=notwrong
Not enough info:            https://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=75023&r=notenoughinfo
Submitted twice:            https://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=75023&r=submittedtwice
register_globals:           https://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=75023&r=globals
PHP 4 support discontinued: https://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=75023&r=php4
Daylight Savings:           https://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=75023&r=dst
IIS Stability:              https://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=75023&r=isapi
Install GNU Sed:            https://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=75023&r=gnused
Floating point limitations: https://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=75023&r=float
No Zend Extensions:         https://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=75023&r=nozend
MySQL Configuration Error:  https://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=75023&r=mysqlcfg