[Haskell-cafe] Lambda and closures in PHP -- could someone please comment?

[Alexander Wagner]

On Wednesday 18 June 2008, Luke Palmer wrote:
> I don't know that much PHP, but I find the "lexical" keyword to be a
> nuisance.  What are the semantics if the lexical keyword is omitted? 

In PHP Variables are local by default, the keyword global defines them as 
references to the global namespace.
There are some exceptions, like the availability of $this in methods or a 
couple of predefined superglobal variables that are implicitly global in all 
functions.

<?php
$globalVar = 1;
$param = "notshared";
$localVar = "notshared";

function foo ($param) {
  global $globalVar;
  $localVar = (int) $param;
  return $localVar + $localVar;
}
?>

Given how much it works like "global", the keyword "lexical" seems quite 
consistent with the style of PHP.

Gesundheit
  Wag

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