[TYPO3-core] CGL proposal: Dropping the closing PHP tag

[Ernesto Baschny [cron IT]]

Hi Stefano,

long ago our .php files were indeed "XML" (PHP embedded in XHTML). This
is simply not the case anymore. Our PHP files are not embedded in XML,
we do *not* encourage to do that, because we separate them (for good
reasons, which I don't think you will argue).

So considering that we don't want to embedd PHP in XML, it sounds
strange that we need to enforce a XML rule onto PHP files.

I always found it beautiful to have the PHP tag closed at the end of the
file, but I also don't really see the need for it anymore. Most
Frameworks and IDEs by default don't do it as their "standard", and this
is becoming a "de-facto" standard, so why should we still wave the
"old-school flag" on that topic?

I am also +1 on removing the closing "?>" (or at least the check).

Cheers,
Ernesto

Stefano Kowalke schrieb am 22.10.2012 15:49:
> Hi,
> 
> as one of the PHP_CodeSniffer Leader who implements the CGL rules I want
> to give some background about this topic.
> 
> I assume that we agreed to common PHP opening and closing tags (<?php
> ?>). Not to the short (<? ?>) or asp (<% %>) variants.
> 
> By using these tags, you do using a so called XML Processing Instruction
> (PI)[1].
> 
> The normal syntax is <?PITARGET PICONTENT?> where PITARGET is in our
> case the string php, which is an directive for the XML parser and as
> every XML tag must be closed, these tags must closed too. (You can see
> this in the tag definition at [2])
> 
> Voting for not closing the php tag, you vote for an invalid XML syntax.
> If it hurts anyone, I have to say: "I don't know".
> 
> I believe that the rules in Zend or Drupal for remove the tag are only
> for lazy devs and for convenience to avoiding "header always sent"
> problems raised by a whitespace after the closing php tag.
> 
> Just my two cents.
> 
> @Steffen: We have to remove the rule, then we can remove the check.
> 
> [1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Processing_Instruction
> [2] http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-xml/#sec-pi
> 
> 
> Am 20.10.12 15:41, schrieb Andreas Wolf:
>> Hi,
>>
>> I'd like to propose a change to our CGL to get rid of the closing PHP tag.
>>
>> I don't see a good reason why it is there, but it creates a lot of
>> hazzle with our "no trailing newline" rule, especially when doing a
>> quick fix without an IDE (I don't control these settings in every
>> editor I use).
>>
>> Dropping the closing tag will make sure that no content in the PHP
>> file can slip into the output (which is AFAIK at least one main reason
>> why we have the "no newline"-rule).
>>
>> What's your opinion on that?
>>
>> Regards
>> Andreas
>>
>